On Thu, 16 May 2002 15:28:06 Joseph B. Reid wrote: >In USMA 20097 Marcus made a good reply to my USMA USMA 20085: > Thanks, Joe, for your positive assessment of my contribution. Please allow me to continue doing my best efforts to address your additional comments below.
>>On Wed, 15 May 2002 16:48:22 >> Joseph B. Reid wrote: >>... ... >However, there is more to be said about the second. Changing the time unit >would involve also changing the following units: >speed, acceleration, hertz, newton, pascal, joule, watt, volt, farad, ohm, >siemens, weber, henry, becquerel, gray, sievert, as well as all 22 units of >Table 4 of the metric bible. > Unlike one may think, I am very aware of the incredible task that it would be for a change to the second unit duration itself. Indeed this would be a monumental task and reason enough for me to have mixed feelings about it. However, if one thinks of the end result and if one considers the issue of coming up with a more... "perfect/definitive" system it is also difficult to NOT conclude that a change to our time system SHOULD *ultimately* be in order. More on this below. >The Confirence ginirale des poids et mesures has rejected many proposals to >repair the obvious defect in SI of having a base unit with a prefix, i.e. >the kilogram. That would be a mere name change. The new second that >Marcus proposes would involve a discontinuity in most records, new dials >for most intruments, new timepieces of all sorts, etc. The world has taken >207 years to change to SI, and the job is not finished yet. How long would >it take to change the world to Marcus's new second for the sake of a slight >cosmetic improvement of SI? > True. I have absolutely no qualms with the above argumentation, and that's why I do not feel like I should press the issue with BIPM. Perhaps we should indeed wait till the transition to SI is complete and for the state of technology to advance even further before contemplating fixing what is remaining to be fixed. Pity though that all this many not happen in my lifetime... Sigh... On the other hand, I'd say that the more humanity advances the easier it *could* get to get these things eventually fixed. What today may sound like a monumental task, maybe in 100 years time may be a breeze to do! Of that I'm also convinced. Again, please consider that I brought this up more as an academic/technical exercise than a real proposal for a change there. Marcus Is your boss reading your email? ....Probably Keep your messages private by using Lycos Mail. Sign up today at http://mail.lycos.com
