Dear All,
I am still thinking that many areas of our measurement lives could be
simplified using the 'Whole numbers rule' that I outlined in http://
www.metricationmatters.com/docs/WholeNumberRule.pdf where I wrote:
In the medical community I can see very real advantages for having a
'whole number rule' for the metric system. There is a real and
present danger if using mixed measurements in hospitals. One current
estimate is that the error rate in USA hospitals is one error per
patient per day. All staff could readily see that 750 micrograms is
smaller than 1250 micrograms but it might not be so obvious that 750
micrograms is smaller that 1.25 milligrams.
One of the big advantages of a 'whole number rule' for the metric
system is that once the culture has changed to the idea of a
preference for using whole numbers, requests for fractional
quantities of drugs such as 'a tenth of a milligram' or 'a quarter of
a tenth of a milligram' would simply disappear.
Today I went to http://pathology.ucsf.edu/labmanual/mftlng-mtzn/test/
index-normal.html and then downloaded the Excel 'Normal Ranges File'.
Here I found over 2000 ranges for medical text data almost all of
which would benefit by having the 'Whole numbers rule' applied to them.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com/ for more metrication information,
contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to get the free
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