Thanks Stan,
I will mull on your information from the USA.
By the way, what its the normal range of prices for gas (petrol) in
the USA currently? Right now the crude oil price is $70.53 USD per
mythical barrel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Barrel_(volume)#Oil_barrel ), and the non-existent barrel is about
1.589 873 E-01 according to Barry Taylor at NIST, see http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/appenB8.html#B
which gives a current crude oil price as $1.68 per gallon (USA).
Please excuse me if my calculations are a bit wobbly – I don't have
local knowledge – I have not been to the USA for a few years.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2010/06/07, at 19:56 , Stan Doore wrote:
Hi Pat:
It's the media here in the US.
The larger number (gallons) is used to give the public a false
impression because the public doesn't understand and can't compare
easily. Barrels normally has been used as the unit in reporting oil
in virtually all other circumstances relating to bulk oil except at
the gas pump. The media doesn't want people to understand the
relationships. Media purpose is to confuse the public.
Cubic metres should be the uniform reporting unit worldwide.
Litres is used to sell most soft drinks and all liquor here in the
US. The metre is closely related to the yard which people in the US
are very familiar.
1000 L = 1 cubic metre is very simple and understandable. It's
much easier to visualize volume too.
Regards, Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 1:15 AM
Subject: [USMA:47526] Who is the down dumber?
On 2010/06/06, at 02:59 , Stan Doore wrote:
Contrast the above reporting with reporting the Gulf oil spill in
gallons for the first few weeks of the spill and now reporting a
combination of gallons and barrels of oil spilled. No use of
metric (cubic meters) of oil spilled is being used.
Dear Stan,
Who is the person who dumbs down these figures? Where is this
person? And why do they do it?
As you know gallons are not a good unit to measure amounts of oil
because the amount (measured as its mass in kilograms or tonnes) of
oil varies according to the nature of the oil ('West Texas' vs
'Mexican' for example) and the current temperature wherever the oil
happens to be at any given time.
Obviously the unit that buyers and sellers of oil use is not the
same as the unit used to report to the public. It follows that
someone, somewhere, has to alter – dumb down – all oil numbers for
the general public.
Barrels of oil of course are a different matter because a barrel for
oil has never actually existed. This creates some odd situations.
Here are two of them that I have noticed today:
1 A few weeks ago it was reported that the BP oil leak was emitting
5000 barrels per day. Now the cap placed over the oil leak it is
reported as stopping almost all of the oil by stopping 10 000
barrels per day. Maybe, like the lords and ladies in France before
the introduction of the metric system, the oil companies are using
barrels with a variable size according to the circumstances when
they make their report.
2 This morning the world oil price indicator was quoted as about $70
per barrel. This translates to about 53 cents per litre in Australia
while petrol (gas) is selling at about $1.25 per litre. If people
knew these figures they might be tempted to ask, 'Where did the
other 72 cents go?'
Again I ask, 'Who is the person who dumbs down these figures? Where
is this person? And why do they do it?'
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that
they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or
selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources
for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial,
industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google,
NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the
USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication
information, contact Pat at [email protected] or
to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
