On 2007/12/05, at 4:43 AM, STANLEY DOORE wrote:
About a year ago someone provided a long list of energy units
for quantities of food in SI rather than in calories.
Would you please send that list to me so I may recommend its use?
Regards, Stan Doore
Dear Stan,
I published a list of 93 energy measuring words as part of my
article, 'A word about global warming' see: http://
www.metricationmatters.com/docs/AWordAboutGlobalWarming.pdf
My list included all of the various calories and Calories that I
found calibrated to different temperatures as the measurement of heat
energy in food is temperature dependent. British Thermal Units and
Calories share this problem
Here is an extract:
When I searched for the ways people describe energy use, I quickly
found lots of different words that purport to describe amounts of
energy. However, I doubt that my searching did little more than
scratch the surface. Here are 93 energy names that I have collected
so far:
Old pre-metric, early metric, and mongrel energy units
Atomic energy unit, barrel oil equivalent, Billion electron volts,
British thermal unit (0 °C), British thermal unit (16 °C), British
thermal unit (20 °C), British thermal unit (32 °F), British thermal
unit (4 °C), British thermal unit (60 °F), British thermal unit (68 °
F), British thermal unit (international), British thermal unit (ISO),
British thermal unit (IT), British thermal unit (mean), British
thermal unit (thermal), British thermal unit (thermochemical),
calorie, Calorie, calorie (16 °C), Calorie (16 °C), calorie (20 °C),
Calorie (20 °C), calorie (4 °C), Calorie (4 °C), calorie (diet
calorie), Calorie (diet kilocalorie), calorie (int.), Calorie (int.),
calorie (IT), calorie (International Steam Table), Calorie (it),
Calorie (international steam table) , calorie (mean), Calorie (mean),
calorie (thermochemical), Calorie (thermochemical), calorie (USA
Customary), Calorie (USA Customary), Celsius heat unit (int.),
coulomb volt, cubic centimetre atmospheres, cubic foot atmospheres,
cubic meter atmospheres, dutys, dyne centimetres, electron volt, erg,
foot-grains, foot-pound force, foot-poundal, gigaelectronvolt, gram
calorie, gram calories (mean), hartree, horsepower hours, horsepower
hours (metric), inch pound force, Kayser, kilo, kilocalorie (16 °C),
kilocalorie (16 °C), kilocalorie (20 °C), kilocalorie (4 °C),
kilocalorie (4 °C), kilocalorie (diet kilocalorie), kilocalorie
(int.), kilocalorie (int.), kilocalorie (IT) (International Steam
Table) , kilocalorie (mean), kilocalorie (thermochemical),
kiloelectronvolt, kilogram calories (int.), kilogram force meter,
kiloton TNT equivalent, kilowatt hour, kilowatt minute, kilowatt
second, megaelectronvolt, megaton TNT equivalent, megawatt hours,
newton meter, newton meters, Q unit, quadrillion, quad, Rydberg,
therm (EC), therm (US), thermie (16 °C), ton TNT equivalent, tonne
coal equivalent, tonne oil equivalent, watt hour.
I am aware, by the way, that some of these are actually equivalent to
each other. For example, I think that a Rydberg is equivalent to a
Kayser, but I doubt that this equivalence would be intuitive to many
of our politicians.
But what is even more concerning is that when converting from one to
another, all these different energy words also require thousands of
conversion factors if energy issues are to be understood at even a
basic level. The 93 measures above require 8556 conversion factors to
convert from any one measure to any other.
Remember, in the International System of Units (SI) there is only one
unit for energy:
joule
Therefore conversion factors are not necessary — there aren't any.
The joule was first established as the international unit for heat
and other forms of energy in 1889. It is the only unit recognised for
all forms of energy in the International System of Units (SI) since
then.
Since a joule is a relatively small amount of energy, it is usual to
describe larger amounts using the SI prefixes. Here is the complete
list of those in use:
joules, kilojoules, megajoules, gigajoules, terajoules,
petajoules, exajoules, zettajoules, and yottajoules.
Given the nature of this linguistic problem how can we, as a nation
or as a world community, sensibly discuss energy issues when we don't
know what other people in other industries and in other nations are
talking about?
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin helps people understand how to go about their
metrication upgrade– quickly and easily – by helping them avoid
mistakes that he has made himself, or that he has seen made by others
during his more than 35 years of involvement with metrication
matters. Contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Pat specialises in the modern metric system based on the
International System of Units (SI), but he is mostly concerned with
the processes that people use for themselves, their groups, their
businesses, their industries, and their nations as they go about
their inevitable metrication process. See: http://
www.metricationmatters.com/
Pat Naughtin is a highly knowledgeable metric enthusiast, who is also
a writer, professional speaker, editor, and publisher. He spoke in
many places in the USA in 2005 and his most recent speaking tour, in
2007, included Singapore, Paris, London, Toronto, Washington,
Tennessee, Colorado, Idaho, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Recent
clients have been the United Kingdom Metric Association, The Canadian
Metric Association, the United States Metric Association, NIST in
Washington, Google in San Francisco, and NASA in Los Angeles.
