[USMA:37284] Re: cm vs. mm

[Pat Naughtin]

Title: Re: [USMA:37280] cm vs. mm

Dear Pierre and all,

On 11/09/06 2:30 AM, "Pierre Abbat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I should have time soon to write to the
> BIPM about preferring the dunam to the hectare, the reason for which is that
> neither the hectare nor the are is a power of 1000 times the square meter,
> whereas the dunam is.
>
> Pierre

This looks a lot like a piece of land called a 'house block' in Australia. It was measured out from a piece of land that was a chain wide at the street and 2.5 chains deep giving it an area of 2.5 square chains or 1/4 of an acre. This soon became known as a quarter acre block.

With metrication in the 1970s, it took a while but people soon realised that 0.25 acres was equal to 1 011.71411 square meters and that this, given the vagaries of land surveying could be regarded as a '1000 square metre block' and I am pleased to say that this practice is becoming more popular.

However, I don't think that having a another special name for 1000 square metres (such as dunam) helps our cause. I would prefer that people become used to the idea of the SI unit, square metre, for sizes up to and including house lots of land before introducing another new name.

Cheers,

Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, 3216
Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008

Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
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Pat is also recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. He is also editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' section of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. See: http://www.metricationmatters.com

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