Terry Simpson  wrote in USMA 22926:
I am under the impression that the CGPM regards 'SI' as equivalent to
'metric'. This is because they use the following phrase:
"... the International System of Units (SI), which is the modern form of
the metric system;"

It does not say:
"... the International System of Units (SI), which is the modern
*subset* of the metric system;"

If a unit is in the 'modern form of the metric system' it is therefore
'SI' and vica versa.

A unit that is 'non-SI' must also be not in the 'modern form of the
metric system'. A minute is non-SI and is therefore not metric.

My problem is that I was surprised when I read that some non-SI units
are described as metric. I can't see anywhere in the text of the SI
brochure that supports this.

http://www.bipm.fr/pdf/si-brochure.pdf

Terry Simpson

Look at the BIPM brochure. Table 6 lists litre, tonne, neper and bel, all of them metric units and accepted for use with the SI. Table 8 lists non-SI units currently accepted for use with the SI: hectare, bar, angstrom and barn. Table 9 lists derived CGS units: erg, dyne, poise, stokes, gauss, oersted, maxwell, stilb, phot, and gal. Table 10 list other non-SI units, but which are indisputably metric: rad, rem, gamma, jansky, fermi, and micron.

"The International System of Units (SI), which is the modern form of the metric system" because all physical quantities can be expressed with the 7 SI base units plus the units of plane and solid angle. However, litre is more convenient for volume measurement, the hectare for some area measurements , etc. Table 9 units that I have listed are obsolete, but are definitely metric.


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