On 2006 Mar 31 , at 5:03 PM, Jim Elwell wrote:
Another way of saying this is that Table 3 of BIPM's SI document (Derived Units with Special Names) should be expanded with reasonable expediency, to help control the proliferation of such names.
Jim's point is well taken, but most of the rest of this discussion has had to do with the possibility that shorter names may be reasonable for multisyllabic unit names like millimetre (4 syllables), kilopascal (4 syllable), kilogram (3 syllable), megawatt (3 syllables), etc. This is not the same thing as developing shorter names for units that are combinations of other units, which is what Table 3 refers to in the document Jim cites.
BOTH of these ideas are open to valid discussion, but they are not the same. One proposes to allows kilometres per hour to be called klicks; the other allows kilogram-metres per second squared to be called newtons.
You are right, of course, in pointing out that I am talking about two different things. However, only a very small percentage of the population can tell you whether a unit of measure is a base unit or a combination. People will make up shorter names for any frequently-used unit of measure that is "too long," regardless of whether it is a unit or a combination of units.
Witness: klick for kilometer, nit for candela per square meter.
Perhaps my citing Table 3 was confusing, but that is where most short names already reside: volt, watt, joule, etc.
Jim
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