On 2007 Dec 3 , at 3:45 AM, Nat Hager III wrote:
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/11/26/opinion/dpt-gray1125.txt
Great article, Nat. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
I had an issue with his reference to the calorie, however, and wrote
to the aurhtor about it. My message to him follows. I hope I have
helped him understand metric better without discouraging his
enthusiasm for metrication. We've discussed this dilemma before on
this list: How do you gently correct errors made by pro-metric
enthusiasts without discouraging their enthusiasm?
Here's my reply:
Your article promoting US conversion to metric was welcome. There
was a minor misunderstanding on one point, however. You cite the
calorie as an example of how god the metric system is. However, the
calorie, a unit for energy, is not a unit of the SI metric system,
the system we would be converting to. It's an older metric unit
that's no longer used in metric countries. The modem metric system
(called "SI", for "System International") uses the joule to measure
energy. Please continue encouraging the US to save time, money and
effort by going metric.
I tried to add the fact that the calorie used used mainly for heat and
for food energy, but that the food energy calorie was defined as 1000
times bigger than the heat calorie, etc., but I was limited to 100
words (nice metric number) and didn't have room for all that.
Bill Hooper
73 kg body mass*
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
* plus or minus a kilogram or so.
