Dear folks, I need your help with a few things, if you'd be so kind. Could anyone here provide me with the *official* references for the following: US and Canadian documents stating that imperial units are *defined* (pegged) as some metric value (especially the inch); when and why the decision was made by English speaking countries to "standardize" around the 25.4 mm value for the inch?
And finally why prefixes cannot be considered conversion factors? The above request has been the result of a heated debate I've had with a local professor of chemistry who insisted that imperial units still have their own definitional standards. He also insisted that things like mm, cm, etc, DO need conversion factors, i.e. that 1 mm = 1/1000 x 1 m, etc (where the 1/1000 would be the "conversion factor" (SIC)). Despite my best efforts I couldn't get through to his head that my proposals were the truth, sigh... Thank you kindly for providing me with this info. You can answer to me by private e-mail if you wish. However, if you posted it to all it could avoid having a flood of people providing the same answer. Marcus Is your boss reading your email? ....Probably Keep your messages private by using Lycos Mail. Sign up today at http://mail.lycos.com
