Bill Potts wrote: > First, there's not much point in using dekaseconds or hectoseconds. The > multiple is too small to be of much practical value.
A das is longer than a minute, which most people think is a practical interval. Of course, da and h are not much used for anything, anyway. > Although kiloseconds are ideal for measuring elapsed time, they are (in my > opinion) very awkward for stating the time of day. Try replacing "I work > from 9 to 5" (or "I work from 9 to 17") with the equivalent in kiloseconds. > Would you really want to say "I work from 32.4 ks to 61.2 ks" (or some > rounded off values). 32.4 ks from when? 61.2 ks from when? Now if you wanted > to say you were on the job for about 29 ks (rounded from 28.8 ks), that > would make sense (even if it may not be a good idea), as no starting point > reference (e.g., midnight) would be needed. When someone says, "0900 hours," do you ask them, "from when"? Obviously, "from when" would probably still be midnight, which is usually defined legally, unless it was decided to start the day from some other point, as in the Jewish calendar. Of course, giving the unit is often not necessary. But that's all besides the point, since I am not advocating this. Read what I said before: "I am not advocating that kiloseconds replace hours and minutes for determining the time of day. That has not even occurred to me before. I don't think that would be practical or desireable, nor would it be necessary in order to use ks." Someone else suggested that. I did make a ks clock, but merely for amusement, as I said. I really cannot imagine people using such a thing in reality. A lot of people expressing opinions on the subject (not just on this list) seem to be confusing time of day with time interval. The metric system (SI) defines units of time interval. Time scales (such as TAI and UTC) define time of day. Time scales may be based upon SI, but they are different things. What I am talking about here is strictly time interval. When you said, "I work from 32.4 ks to 61.2 ks", that's time of day. When you said, "you were on the job for about 29 ks", that's time interval. The latter's what I'm talking about. See the NIST Time & Frequency glossary at http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/enc-ti.htm#time John Hynes
