Microsoft Research has released a beta version of its new program
WorldWide Telescope. I downloaded it from
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
and installed it. Not too far into my exploration of this, on a guided
tour regarding M81, I came across a problem. I used the onsite "bug"
reporting system to report it and what I said is quoted below.
Jim
I have just started to explore your new WorldWide Telescope program and
it strikes me as having amazing potential in education. (I am retired
from the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy at the College of Charleston in
Charleston, SC.)
As an educational program, it should do things correctly. I call your
attention to the page on "SI Units", published by the International
Astronomical Union at
http://www.iau.org/science/publications/proceedings_rules/units/
There, you will see the micron listed in Table 6 as a unit deprecated
for continued use. Yet, in the M81 tour, hosted by Dr. Wong, the micron
was used extensively. The proper unit name is micrometer.
Forty years ago, in 1967/68 the 13th CGPM passed CR 105 which abrogated
the unit name micron (Metrologia 1968 4, 43). While the AAU is somewhat
stuck in a previous epoch, the rest of the world now rarely uses the
unit name micron.
I encourage you to abstain from teaching an error by publishing material
with obsolete terms. Please use only the SI and use it correctly in your
program and its materials.
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
