[USMA:36341] Symbol for deka/deca, and now hecto

[Jim Elwell]

I'm up to the H's in this Weights & Measures dictionary, and it turns out the CGPM did the same thing with H for hecto that they did with D for deca -- before 1960 they were capital letters, after 1960 they were lower case.

Based on the number of comments I received, both on list and off list, I still cannot see adequate justification for these decisions: make SI less consistent because some people were not using "D" or "H" correctly?

Maybe there was some justification no one on this list is aware of, but so far I can only conclude that the CGPM delegates were either (a) smoking something, or (b) something political was going on.

Jim

Jim Elwell, CAMS
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com