Bill said:-

| I noticed something interesting about that ad.
|
| There is some room for disagreement over 147 kW (space before unit) and
| 147kW (no space). British and Australian practice differ from American
and
| French (for example) practice in that respect. However, the writer of the
ad
| has disregarded normal grammatical rules in writing 2.4litre. Litre is an
| English word, not a symbol, and is subject to normal syntactical rules.
|
| I notice, also, that he/she has used "sec." rather than the correct SI
unit,
| s.
|
| Of course, the writer would have been better off choosing to use all unit
| names or all unit symbols, rather than the hodgepodge he/she did choose.
|
| Bill Potts, CMS
| Roseville, CA
| http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]

Very true, Bill, however we've had many interesting discussions about the
correct use of units, abbreviations, etc, including the recent heated
debate over Mg instead of tonne.

My point is that at this stage it doesn't really matter - it's the USE of
the SI system we're after, regardless of what terms we should use. I'd much
rather hear an American newsreader mention an SI term incorrectly than an
FFU term correctly (if there is such a thing).

Keep plugging away with letters to news editors about the use of SI these
days, as Ezra's excellent letter to the Teaching Company.

Best regards and have a safe and Happy Christmas. Sure are looking forward
to sunny Cal being the first state to erect km-only road signs.

Mike

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