Arrrgh. The Associated Press Stylebook strikes again ...
Carleton From: MacDonald, Carleton Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 12:59 To: Employee Communications Subject: RE: Special Employee Advisory: Message from Joe Boardman The Associated Press Stylebook is rather clueless - in fact, flat-out wrong - on a number of issues regarding metric measure, and this is one of the more egregious ones. For one thing, there is no unit of distance called a "k". Capitalized, "K" is the SI (International System of Units = the metric system) symbol for "Kelvin", the base unit of thermodynamic temperature. This is of course not what is meant here. The unit of length being used here is the kilometer, and its symbol - its only symbol - is "km", and the way to show distance over time is "km/h". "kph" in SI is meaningless, but no doubt they're deriving it from "mph", under the wrong assumption that as the "m" stands for "mile", the "k" stands for "kilometer". The fact that AP and many other users have no idea how to properly express metric units has other examples too, such as "5K" road races (a 5-kelvin race?). All of this of course stems from the fact that the USA stubbornly resists joining the rest of the world in measuring intelligently. That said: at least we mentioned the speed in SI as well as in old units, and that is good. Carleton MacDonald _____ From: Employee Communications Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:41 To: MacDonald, Carleton Subject: RE: Special Employee Advisory: Message from Joe Boardman Thanks for the input. But, according the Associated Press Stylebook, kph is acceptable in all references. Kevin _____ From: MacDonald, Carleton Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 3:38 PM To: Employee Communications Subject: RE: Special Employee Advisory: Message from Joe Boardman One tiny minor thing: kilometers per hour is expressed "km/h". _____ From: Employee Communications Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 15:32 Subject: Special Employee Advisory: Message from Joe B. Attached is a Special Employee Advisory from President and CEO Joe B.. Please post on all bulletin boards. special employee advisory March 19, 2010 Dear Co-workers, <snip> Specifically, this department will work on the planning and development activities that will allow us to significantly increase operating speeds above 150 mph (240 kph) on the Northeast Corridor. It will also pursue partnerships with states and others in the passenger rail industry to develop federally-designated high-speed rail corridors such as the new projects moving forward in California and Florida.
