The Soviet Union and the Russians have used m/s in their surface weather
reports for decades. m/s has been used worldwide in weather data system at
least since the 1940s. Airlines and others have converted to knots, miles per
hour and km/h from m/s. m/s is the international standard in weather observing
systems.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Potts
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:37 PM
Subject: [USMA:41171] RE: Wind speed m/s
Pat:
The article looks good.
Of course, if one doesn't need to assess the energy involved, there's no need
to visualize an arbitrary volume, or indeed any volume. I simply visualize
whatever is blowing on my face arriving at whatever point within the current
scope of my vision I think it will reach in one second. I then make a rough
estimate of the distance to that point.
In the case of a weather report, where the wind velocity is already provided,
I don't necessarily have to know how it will feel on my face. I can visualize
leaves or dust or something else blowing along the street at that velocity. Of
course, I could also use that same visualization for when the wind is actually
blowing on my face.
Your wind-speed categories are interesting, making your article a good
reference. However, for the purposes of a simple explanation, there may be too
much information there.
By the way, I've never seen Rear Admiral hyphenated before. I don't know
about Australian spelling conventions, but in US English, service ranks aren't
hyphenated. The last two times I was in Australia, I thought about buying an
Aussie dictionary, but simply never got around to it. An actual substantive
problem, though, is your use of Roman type for the formulas. To distinguish
them from units, variables should be italicized (e.g., E = 0.5·mv² or E =
mv²/2). (I know you know that, so I assume it's an oversight.)
Best regards,
Bill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 04:03
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41166] Wind speed m/s
On 2008/06/16, at 3:45 AM, Bill Potts wrote:
Now, for wind speed, m/s makes eminent sense. There, we're dealing with
whether or not something can be visualized.
Dear Bill,
Thanks for this suggestion. It really stated me thinking.
My first thought was about the ability of your imagination to visualise an
invisible substance such air in an invisible form such as wind.
However, to continue your theme of 'something can be visualized', I have
begun the attached article with these two sentences:
I want you to share a thought experiment with me.
Visualise a cubic metre of air.
