Dear Pat:
Thanks Pat for adding the use of gigalitres etc. in Australia to the
discussion. It is helpful to know that volumes larger than the kL are being
used.
However, volumes larger than a kL (cubic metre) become incomprehensible and
require mental conversion to get some idea of size.
Use of the kL is a practical and simplified way of substituting for cubic
metre as a base large volume for public use. This concept follows mass where
the kg has become commonly used and 1000 kg is known as the tonne.
This does not mean that additional prefixes should be added to the kL for
very large volumes. In river flow, for example, 1200 kL per second (1200 kL/s)
would be just as understandable to the public as cubic metres per second
without going to 1.2 ML/s.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 10:33 PM
Subject: [USMA:44561] Re: FPLA 2010
Dear Stan,
In the Australian water supply industry, kilolitres, megalitres, and
gigalitres are commonly used.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Geelong, Australia
On 2009/04/10, at 7:40 PM, STANLEY DOORE wrote:
I am NOT advocating larger multiple units than the kL (m^3). Larger
multiples than the kL would be too complex, cumbersome and not user-friendly.
Virtually all people are accustomed to the L and submultiples thereof as
they buy medicine and products in stores.
The kL would be very useful for things such as rain barrels, ponds,
stream flow and other every day things to which people can relate. People can
relate to the kL which is a clean and useful expression of everyday large
volume. In the case of river flow and water and sewage systems, the use of
gallons per minute are incomprehensible because it has no easy direct
relationship to SI volume whereas kL (cubic meters) do. The use of L and not
kL is also incomprehensible for stream flow because the numbers are so large.
The NIST should be the leader in advocating the use of kL in the public
domain. The cubic meter and multiples and submultiples thereof should be used
in engineering and science.
To be consistent, those who do not advocate the use of the kL for
everyday use also should be against the use of the L and submultiples thereof.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 2:02 PM
Subject: [USMA:44488] Re: FPLA 2010
Stan and Pierre,
I think you have some good arguments for allowing larger multiples of the
liter in *common parlance*.
If you are able to persuade the CCU, CIPM, and NIST to accept multiples
greater than one, I'll be among the last to object, but in Science and
Technology, I'm with John. The coherence of SI is more important, without the
liter and its multiples, except, perhaps, in medical practice.
Gene.
---- Original message ----
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:39:48 -0400
From: Pierre Abbat <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:44483] Re: FPLA 2010
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
On Wednesday 08 April 2009 08:32:21 STANLEY DOORE wrote:
I disagree with the NIST in the case of kL because L is used widely
and
well known in the public sector. Are you suggesting that mm^3 be
used
instead of L? Stan Doore
I too disagree with the NIST. A liter is a cubic decimeter, a kiloliter
is a
cubic meter, a megaliter is a cubic decameter, a gigaliter is a cubic
hectometer, a teraliter is a cubic kilometer, a petaliter is a cubic -
what?
You can't express the petaliter as the cube of a named unit. Likewise
the
exaliter. Contrariwise, you can't express the cubic yottameter or cubic
zeptometer as a prefixed liter.
As to the tonne, I wouldn't use it with any prefix. There are so many
kinds of
tons and tuns that just saying "tonne" instead of "megagram" is not
worth the
loss of clarity.
The stere has been deprecated, but I think it's still useful as a
jargon unit,
since it has only one syllable compared to four for both alternatives. I
still sometimes think in steres, since my father grew up with the unit.
Pierre
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
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