Carl Sorenson wrote: >I didn't see the quote in its original context, It is on page 83. Search for 'metric system' and you will find it in the brochure.
>but it seems to me that it is not intended to be a legalistic >definition of the term "metric system". It is explaining what >SI is, not the term "metric system". The sentence has the same >form as something like "the Honda Civic, which is a high-quality >economy car". No it doesn't have that form. The phrase uses the definite article. It is not 'a modern metric system', it is 'the modern metric system'. The modern metric system is, by international agreement, the only modern metric system. Note that English language text is not the official version. I quote the French version: [begin quote] "... Syst�me international d'unit�s (SI), forme moderne du Syst�me m�trique." [end quote] The quote is from: http://www.bipm.fr/pdf/brochure-si.pdf But I believe this to be at least as definitive, if not more so, than the English translation. >If you then look at the BIPM brochure to see what SI is, >you find that units such as the liter are explicitly allowed. Explicitly 'accepted for use with SI', but specifically non-SI. >Metric units are, in some fairly simple way, based on the seven >base units and the prefixes. Agreed. >The liter is explicitly allowed for use because it is such a >useful unit (as well as entrenched). We are not debating which units you or I might think are useful; merely which units are officially stated to be in the modern metric system. >Without it, we would need to give a special name to the cubic meter The cubic metre is used more widely than you might imagine. For example, it is used on my gas bill and my water bill. >and buy soft drinks in thousandths or millionths of the unit. Cubic centimetres are numerically identical to ml. They were, and still are, used widely in Europe. It is unlikely that you will have encountered them in the US. Do a web search (remember US and EU spellings) on cubic metre and cubic centimetre and see what you get. The litre is very common, but the SI units are still useful and are still widely used around the world. Having said all that, I enjoyed your reasoning, as I enjoyed your articles for your university newspaper.
