I am NOT suggesting humans are salable. However, if we look at the "largest whole unit" rule in FPLA and UPLR, it would require adult heights to be given in meters, in the form x.xx m. Children < 1 m would have height in cm or mm. As vehicle clearances are given in meters (well, when they are metric) it also makes sense for people to know their vertical clearance in meters (1.94 m, here). Finally this form is directly useable in Body Mass Index (which I believe does not apply to children under some size or age). The "largest whole unit" rule makes reasonable sense unless there is some other overriding consideration.
Dimensions in millimeters are the norm in engineering drawings (up to at least 100 m) so that units can be covered by a general note rather than labeled on every dimension. However, millimeters are overly precise for human dimensions which vary throughout the day and day-to-day. A number like 1940 mm always leaves doubt. Is it between 1939.5 and 1940.5, or between 1935 and 1945? If we throw the "largest whole unit" rule out the window, then centimeters are a superior choice to millimeters because it avoids numbers >1000 and integer rounding is essentially rational rounding given tolerances and variation. Decimal fractions really aren't scary (unlike vulgar fractions). Calculators handle them fine. Further, the number of significant figures is explicitly clear. --- On Tue, 3/10/09, STANLEY DOORE <[email protected]> wrote: > From: STANLEY DOORE <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43669] Re: Metric personal data was Re: 24 hour time > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 11:24 PM > mm or cm should be used rather than use a decimal point. mm > would be preferable since all human dimensions could be in > mm to avoid confusion. Obviously this would not apply to > medicine. > Stan Doore > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pierre Abbat" > <[email protected]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" > <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:47 PM > Subject: [USMA:43663] Re: Metric personal data was Re: 24 > hour time > > > > > > On Tuesday 10 March 2009 17:02:03 John M. Steele > wrote: > >> Interesting. Has anyone ever insisted on giving > metric height on either a > >> US Passport application or a state driver's > license? If so, how did it go? > > > > I wrote my height in metric (it was 1.47 m back then) > when I got my first > > passport, which was about 19 years ago. I don't > remember how it went. I > > renewed it by mail. > > > > Pierre > >
