That's 5000, not 50000, and the "whats" are meters. "k" is used as an (informal, ambiguous, and non-standard) abbreviation for "km" in this case, much like "M" is sometimes used as an ambiguous abbreviation for "MB". Not the best idea, IMHO. I seriously doubt that the one letter saved by this form of abbreviation is worth the confusion it causes (to the kind of people who would never guess what it means, like my mom) and the lost opportunity to educate people about how the prefixes in the metric system work.
--- Howard Ressel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I would agree since the "k" is not a copyrighted symbol that can only be used > exclusively with > SI. You can not copyright a letter of the alphabet which makes the "k" on > package foods non > legal and not accepted (by most) kosher symbol. Anyone can put a k on a > package (just as they > can put it in front of money or after the length of a race, a 5k race is > 50000 whats?) but it > has no legality to it. > > Howard Ressel > Project Design Engineer, Region 4 > (585) 272-3372 > > >>> "Ziser, Jesse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 5/25/2008 4:22 PM >>> > k$ is clearly not part of the metric system, and clearly SI has no say in > whether it is > "allowed" > or "disallowed". For now, people can measure currency any way they like. > > --- Paul Trusten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >From the metric system newsgroup. What do you think? > > > > Paul > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Joerg Eisentraeger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Newsgroups: misc.metric-system > > Sent: 22 May, 2008 17:49 > > Subject: Using of SI prefixes with currencies > > > > > > > > > > Hello all, > > > > > > the people of Controlling departments of companies etc. here often use > > > the unit k¤ (KiloEuro) for 1000 EUR or k$ for 1000 $. > > > > > > According to the official SI system: Is it allowed or forbidden to use > > > the prefix k with currencies? I have not found anything about that on > > > http://www.bipm.org/en/si/. > > > > > > In my opinion a currency is not a unit of measurement, therefore the SI > > > system does not apply to currencies at all, including prefixes. Am I > > > wrong? > > > > > > > > > Greetings from Germany > > > Joerg > > > -- > > > http://www.joergei.de/ > > > eMail address is valid but not been read. > > > > > > > > > > >
