[USMA:26248] Fw: 6.2 miles is not 10 km

[Norman & Nancy Werling]

To all,   I just sent this to the letters editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  The Atlanta 10 kilometer race held on July 4th each year is constantly referred to as a 6.2 mile race.  I hope that will give me an opening into talking about metric.  I carefully counted my words at 150, so I am hopeful.   Norm ----- Original Message ----- From: Norman & Nancy Werling To: Letters to the Editor AJC Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 13:26 Subject: 6.2 miles is not 10 km Ten kilometers is 6.2137119 miles and not 6.2 miles which is a measure becoming obsolete even in the English speaking world.   You are short 22.067 meters ( 72.399 feet) if you stop at 6.2 miles!   Do the world's competitive runners train themselves in one kilometer increments (1000 meters) and mentally adjust to the mile markers in the USA?   In the International System of Units the meter measures length and distance, the gram measures mass (mistakenly called weight) and the liter measures volume.    Prefixes attached to the unit name are milli- (one thousandth), centi- (one hundredth), deci- (one tenth), deca- or deka- (ten), hecto- (one hundred), and kilo- (one thousand).     Many also know nano- (one billionth), micro- (one millionth), (mega- (one million), and giga- (one billion).   English speakers mispronounce kilo-meter as kil-ahm-e-ter mistakenly following the example of mechanical or electrical devices such as speedometers.  Nobody mispronounces kilo-grams, micro-grams, milli-liters, mega-bytes, or nano-seconds.   Sincerely,   Norman Werling Stone Mountain, GA 30083 404-292-9328