I'm afraid the ghost of Sea Biscuit will win the Kentucky Derby before JPL uses those larger SI prefixes in press releases intended for the general public. Intellectuals may read them, but millions of "Joe Sixpacks" pay for them, and JPL (and NASA in general) are loathe to lose their 'audience.' -- Jason
----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Joy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 6:22 PM Subject: [USMA:23374] Astronomical distance measures > Hi all, > > With references from time to time regarding NASA and JPL press releases > starting to use SI units, they prompted me to send off this letter today to > JPL:- > > > The Secretary > Media Relations Office > JPL > Pasadena > CA 91109 > USA > > Dear Sir, > > Re: Better use of measurements in your media releases > > First, congratulations on your use of SI (metric) measurements in your > media releases. This now brings a sense of reality to your releases > removing the "Star Trek" image of so many decades past. > > However, your use of "billions" should be relegated to the old customary > units, as the term "a billion miles" means absolutely nothing to anyone > other than "a long, long way". > > Today in the 21st century we are all familiar with metric prefixes as we > use them every day, e.g. kilo for "a thousand" (kilogram), milli for "a > thousandth" (millimeter), Mega for "a million" (MegaHertz), cent for > "hundredth" (cent coin), Giga for "a thousand million" (Gigabyte) and so > on. > > May I persuade you to consider using suitable prefixes for very large > distances in order to make them more meaningful? Your statement "1.6 > billion km" would be better stated as 1.6Tm (to use the correct > terminology, i.e. Terameters), or at least you could use "xxx times the > distance from the Earth to the Sun", or other suitable astronomical > measuring terminology. > > This would make your releases much more interesting and believable, instead > of the science fiction type of statement that you use now. While you have > to cater for the average American, you also have to cater for the > intellectuals of the world and THEY are the ones who are going to be more > interested in your releases than the average man on the street. He doesn't > say he's "going to walk 1.6 million inches to the store". > > Don't forget, if you put your releases on a website, then everyone in the > world can read them, not just Mr. Average American. > > Yours very sincerely, > > > Michael R. Joy > (address) > 15 November 2002 > >
