Mike, please don't consider that I'm disagreeing with you. However, different places have different ways of doing business and undertaking technical matters. All I'm saying is that some people are NOT confused or overwhelmed or bothered by the presence of several prefixes. Brazilians have always been dealing with engineering plans, drawings,etc, with such mixtures, and noone, to my knowledge, is calling on 'standardization' of values towards a specific prefixed unit. We're fine with our cm, mm, m and all combined. We don't need anyone to dictate to us that we should from now on adopt the mm exclusively, for instance!
Marcus On Sat, 4 Jan 2003 07:51:01 Mike Joy wrote: >Marcus, > >Your average builder would definitely not want to move decimal points around - too >much risk in putting the point in the wrong place, especially when he's in a hurry >which he is 99% of the time. > >There's nothing bizarre about standardization. If you have many measurements on a >plan and they are all different sizes, eg small items such as a post or large items >such as a room, then it makes sense to have the same pattern of measurements on your >plan so there's no confusion or misunderstandings. > >It's understood all dimensions are in mm and the reason my block size did not end in >000 is because it was converted from an old plan that used perches. Now don't ask me >if an Imperial perch is different from a US perch - I assume an American Bald Eagle >required more space to park than a Kookaburra, but I know who had the last laugh. > >Millimeters should ALWAYS be used as a standard, no matter what the item is. > >Regards > >Mike >Perth, Australia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Ma Be > To: U.S. Metric Association > Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 5:46 AM > Subject: [USMA:24346] Re: Millimetres, centimetres, and decimetres > > > On Fri, 3 Jan 2003 08:21:55 > Mike Joy wrote: > >Marcus, > > > >What you say is technically correct, but my point is that it is MUCH easier to >work with one unit than a mixture of units. > > > No doubt about it, Mike, I've never disputed that. My point though was that it >really is irrelevant to a metric user if he encounters a mixture of prefixed units. >He can navigate through these with ease and comfort no matter how "messy" this >mixture may be. > > >Moving decimal points around may be easier than messing about with FFUs but it's >even easier not to have to move decimal points. Which is easier:- 12mm + 123mm+ >1234mm or 12mm + 12.3cm + 1.234m? > > > Sure, but, again, to a metric user the latter would pose no challenge whatsoever. >I, personally, do that most of the time. When I see mixed units like the above I, >without even thinking, already position each and every one of them in the proper >fashion for calculation. Example: > > 12 > 123 > 1234 > ----- > 1369 being the end result. No fuss no mess, not even decimal points to worry >about!!! > > >No building plans here show cm units - only mm. Even large distances. My house is >shown on a block size as 20 117 x 40 230. > > > He, he... No offense, but I find the above somewhat... bizarre and completely >unnecessary. Our drawings in Brazil would simply show: > 20,117 m x 40,23 m (the zero doesn't even show!) Since the values are over a meter >it makes no sense to us to use huge numbers, like in mm in this case. Again, we >require no standardization to single prefixed units necessarily to undertake our >daily tasks!!! ;-) > > Regards, > > Marcus > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! > Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus > > ____________________________________________________________ Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus
