Dear John,
Remember the WOMBAT.
on 2002/05/13 00.40, kilopascal at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 2002-05-12
>
> That part I understood. My point was that there are multiple meanings to
> ifp.
Paul Trusten, a pharmacist in Massachusetts originally devised the acronym
WOMBAT to stand for �Ways Of Measuring Badly in America Today �or� Waste Of
Money, Brains, And Time'.
The second expansion of the acronym accurately describes all non-SI units,
and the first accurately describes all those used in the USA.
WOMBAT has the advantages that it is a single word; and it is an acronym so
it doesn't need to have a specific meaning.
After Paul Trusten introduced WOMBAT to the USMA listserv it quickly became
very popular because it is short, humorous, sarcastic, and implies that the
old units are structurally as primitive as Australian marsupial mammals.
Another advantage of the acronym WOMBAT is that it is all-inclusive. You can
use it for all the old non-SI units, for the old Imperial units and even for
old metric but non-SI units such as calories and kilocalories.
However, there is no such thing as a 'WOMBAT system' - it is just WOMBAT.
With a little license, I have also used the acronym 'WOMBAT' for: 'Ways Of
Measuring Badly in Australia Today.'
The acronym, WOMBAT, is useful because there is a fundamental difficulty in
discussing the old non-SI units that are still used in some parts of the
world because there is no official, collective name for the old units we
used in the past.
To help organise my thoughts about old units I have made a list of other
expressions that are used to describe old units. They are:
American units
The term, American units, is wrong because it is not synonymous with the old
units. That assumption is patently false, since the USA has based the
definitions of all their old units on metric units since 1893. This was when
the USA Congress adopted the metre as a standard and defined the inch, foot,
yard, and pound in relation to the metre and kilogram. 'American units'
really means metric units or, more specifically, units of the International
System or SI units.
Bastard units
Bastard units are those that are neither fish nor fowl. These are composite
units made up from parts of various methods without definable parentage.
Examples are grams per mile, pounds per tonne, watts per square inch, ounces
per square metre, and micrograms per square foot. These are the worst kind
of units and should be avoided at all times.
British colonial units
British colonial units is not accurate or inclusive. Most of the British
colonies used Imperial units, not colonial units or USA units, which shared
the same names.
Colonial units
Colonial units immediately identifies old units and sets them in a political
context as being left-over remnants from the time of colonialism without too
much of a political axe to grind against England or the United States.
Customary units
Customary units is wrong because most of them are no longer customary
anywhere in the world, and they will become less customary in the future.
USA customary units (USCU) are really SI units in disguise. USCU can not
survive without SI and needs it � absolutely � in order to be applicable for
high technology work. This is a misuse of SI standards to prop up a
competing set of units. If barley corns, human feet and the length of arms
were good enough for high level measurements then United States Customary
units would not have to be propped up by SI standards.
Deprecated units
Deprecated units is correct for a small group of units that have been
deprecated by the world authority that controls the International System of
Units � Conf�rence G�n�rale de Poids et Mesures (CGPM). However, most people
do not know what deprecated means, they�ve never heard of the CGPM, and some
non-SI units have not yet been officially deprecated by CGPM.
Emu
Emu meaning English mixture of units has the same problems as English units
and Ye Olde English Mixture of units.
English units
English is neither accurate nor inclusive, and it is ambiguous as most
non-SI units are not of English origin. The majority of so-called English
units were originally developed by the Romans, Babylonians, medieval
Europeans, various industries, businesses, and sometimes individual
scientists and engineers. English units also confuses true English units
(whatever they are) with Imperial units and USA units with the same name;
for example an ounce or a ton in the UK is not the same as an ounce or a ton
in the USA.
Imperial units
Leaving aside the question of the demise of the Roman empire, Imperial units
is neither accurate nor inclusive. It is a long time since there's been any
empire that was able to set standards of measurement for the whole world or
even for portions of it. Imperial units is even less appropriate for use in
connection with units with old style names in the USA; Imperial units were
never used in the USA as the Imperial units of the British Empire were
developed, in England, after the USA became an independent nation.
IP, fp, or ifp
IP for inch-pound units, fp for foot-pound, or ifp for inch-foot-pound are
neither accurate nor inclusive. These names are sometimes appropriate in an
engineering context but they are of less use in other fields. They are also
unsatisfactory on other grounds, since many old units, such as the gallon or
acre, have little to do with either inches, feet, or pounds. Also, although
many non-SI units are related to the pound they are not necessarily related
to the inch. In legal terms the old measures were more likely to be based on
the foot or the yard rather than the inch. These terms also have the
drawback that they do not include any of the obsolete metric units.
Non-SI
Non-SI is accurate and inclusive but many people don't yet know what SI
means. Besides non-SI is clumsy to say and it is too similar to SI.
NSIU
NSIU for non-SI units is technically correct but seems vague; it sounds more
like the abbreviation of the name of a university.
Olde English Mixture of units
Olde English Mixture of units has the same problems as English units. It is
also confusing because many non-SI units are recent inventions; they're not
old. For example, the inch, the foot, and the yard did not have standard
lengths until 1959; and even then they were only standardised for English
speaking nations.
PSIU
PSIU for pre-SI units has the same problems as NSIU.
Standard units
Standard units, sometimes written as Std. and sometimes as USS for US
Standard, is not appropriate, as it is not accurate. There is only one truly
international system of standard units, and that is the International System
of Units (SI). SI is the world standard in all countries in the world, and
this has been true since the late nineteenth century. Even in the USA � the
last country in the world to change to SI � the metre and the kilogram have
been their only legal standards since 1893.
System
System as in 'English system', 'Imperial system' or �USA system� is totally
wrong because there never was a system, just a random mixture of units.
These terms should be avoided since most of the old units are unrelated and
certainly do not constitute any sort of coherent 'system.'
Unacceptable units
Unacceptable units is too vague, but it may be useful in some circumstances,
especially since it is technically accurate. At its simplest, if the units
are not SI they are not acceptable.
USC or US Customary
USC for US Customary is not accurate or inclusive; for example it excludes
Imperial units. Many SI units are also customary. Most citizens of the USA
would recognise the SI units, second, litre, watt, volt, ampere, and hertz,
and regard them as customary units in the USA.
Ye olde imperial colonial English incoherent mix of non-system WOMBAT units
Ye olde imperial colonial english incoherent mix of non-system WOMBAT units
is probably a bit long.
And what about: historical units (or hysterical units), (or prehistoric
units), ancient units, archaic units, Fred Flintstone units (FFUs), old
units, incoherent units, old fashioned units, bad units, unsystematic units,
old traditional units, old customary units, old standard units, or formerly
traditional units, formerly customary units, formerly standard units, etc,
etc, etc.
An interesting question that arises when you consider these issues is 'What
is (or was) the legal standard for old units? Of all of the old measurement
units, which of them is the fundamental unit, and what is its official
definition? What official standards exist (or have ever existed) for old
measures?
In my formal writing, I will continue to use 'non-SI,' or 'unacceptable
units' but I suspect that from time to time the word colonial or the acronym
WOMBAT will creep into my vocabulary.
In the light of these not-so-good choices, it's not surprising that in the
USA, as that nation changes to SI, many of their citizens have taken to
using the acronym WOMBAT to describe all of the old ways of our enormous,
chaotic, collection of non-SI units.
In fact, if you include this acronym, WOMBAT, in your SI conversations, it
may be one of the most constructive things you can do to help people to move
toward adopting SI units exclusively.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
CAMS - Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
- United States Metric Association
ASM - Accredited Speaking Member
- National Speakers Association of Australia
Member, International Federation for Professional Speakers
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