2003 November 5
27444 starts out "First of all, the litre is not an SI unit."
This is a big mistake. What should be said is that
"The litre is not a coherent SI unit."
We want the public to accept and use the decimal metric system of
units. We call it SI but there are multiples and some outliers
like litre which are not coherent. If we say the multiples and
outliers are not in the system, people will say we are nuts.
Regardless of what CIPM says, millimetre is SI, litre is SI.
Otherwise we are out of business.
The units in Tables 6 and 7 of SI10 are SI. To say otherwise is
to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Robert Bushnell PhD PE
chair ASTM Committee E43 on SI Practice
