Dear Mike, Check the Bureau International de Poids et Mesures website at www.bipm.fr
There you will find the Metric Bible, the 'International System of Units' that can be downloaded freely in French or English. When you examine this you will find that in all cases there is a space between a number and a unit. For example, five metres is written as 5 m is symbol form. Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS Geelong, Australia on 2002-07-29 11.00, Mike Joy at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi all, > > I am not aware of anyone in the world using cm for anything except for body > height. > > Here in Australia, even the "mm" is assumed. If we want to by a sheet of > board for the wall for instance, we just say "twelve hundred by twenty-four > hundred please" and it's obvious what it is. It's hardly likely to be twelve > hundred cm wide, or even twelve hundred feet (god forbid). This is how > Americans will be talking soon (don't know when) and the sooner the better. > > On another point, I notice everyone is putting a space between the numeral > and the unit. There is no space (as in the ifp system) so it's 1200mm or 1 > 200mm, not 1200 mm. > > Regards > Mike Joy > Perth, Australia > > **************Marcus, in USMA 21377, wrote a strong rebuttal of USMA 21374 > in which I > presented the South African case for the use of the millimetre in > engineering and architectural drawings. Albert J. Mettler carried out an > internatioinal survey of metric practice in 1976. Albert, with a Swiss > background, farvored the centimetre but reported: > > Countries not using the centimetre > engineers architects > Europe > Austria 1) X > Czechoslovakia X > Denmark 1) X X > Germany X > Greece X > Hungary X > Italy X > Luxemburg X X > Norway 1) X X > Poland X > Sweden 1) X > Switzerland X > Yugoslavia X > Africa > Botswana 2) X X > Cameroon x X > Mauritius 2) X X > South Africa 2) X X > Sudan X X > Zimbabwe 2) X X > Asia > Cyprus X > India X > Iraq X > Philippines X > Central America > Cuba X X > El Salvador X > > 1) standards institutes with rather puristic approach > 2) recent converts to metric system with limited use of cm. > > > > Joseph B.Reid > 17 Glebe Road West > Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071 > >
