The megagram, Mg, is in every metrication guidebook I ever saw and it is
"common" in engineering practice and textbooks. It is safe. Because:
There is a whole bunch of tons, tuns, tann, tonnes, long ones, short ones,
metric ones, and some mean mass, other force and some both. Most people have no
clue that those expressions may mean something else that what they think they
do, and therein lies the danger - mistakes, because nobody will "ask". With Mg,
they might go: What the $#@&% is that?
As we know, there is simply the Mg (as there are mg, kg, Gg, etc.) for any mass
and similarly with the N for all forces (mN, kN, MN, etc.). Neither of these
two quantities, nor the professions like in refrigeration need the cursed t.
Let's adhere to the KISS principle when dealing with the metric system.
The general population will catch on anything if they see it repeatedly.
Anybody can and will be comfortable with Mg if the other nicknames disappear
from public view.
Let's be consistent among us to start with, and expand our horizons outside the
English speaking word (how is "ton" in Chinese?, Arabic?). The coherent system
called SI is the ultimate goal and these silly non-coherences, some with the
blessing of BIPM, are only complicating and fuel anti-metric sentiments in the
U.S.
Stan Jakuba
----- Original Message -----
From: John Dunlop
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 09 Jan 26, Monday 10:45
Subject: [USMA:42599] Re: REALLY using the SI
... and a Mg would never be confused with a tonne, or a ton, or a short ton,
or a long ton. At least not off-ton.
John
At 09:17 AM 1/26/2009, Mike Palumbo wrote:
That should read absolute zero, my apologies.
-M
Mike Palumbo wrote:
I personally do not believe that kelvin and the thermodynamic temperature
scale are appropriate for use when talking about temperatures that humans feel
& interact with on a daily basis.
Humans are not going to deal with absolute, but we will surely deal with
the freezing & boiling points of water.
I'd much prefer to say, "It's really hot out, must be almost 35 degrees!"
much more than "Must be almost 309!".
-M
Paul Trusten wrote:
From that last exchange between Jim Frysinger and Stan Doore, I am
contemplating the corruptions of the SI we have lived with, and I wonder if
even the metricated world could stand international standardization of
measurement. Consider:
* kelvins instead of degrees Celsius for temperature
* square meters or square kilometers instead of hectares
* megagrams instead of tonnes or metric tons
* In U.S. medical laboratories, millimoles per liter instead of
milligrams per deciliter for results involving concentrations
Actually, I've never seen a megagram used, but I don't understand why
it isn't used. Its symbol, Mg, could hardly be mistaken for the milligram,
and,even so, no one is going to mistakenly ship someone else one milligram of
rice.
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org < http://www.metric.org> 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
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