Good example. Another example is the dalton, Da. Between the 7th and 8th editions of the SI brochure, it went from a unit used in biochemistry but not approved by CGPM or CIPM, to a full-fledged competitor of the unified atomic mass unit, u. Two names and two symbols for the same concept. I assume someone was pushing the dalton. Let us hope no one wants to use dekadaltons, daDa.
________________________________ From: Bill Hooper <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, June 17, 2010 4:10:13 PM Subject: [USMA:47845] RE: The Oil Leak (Estimate) Increases Again On Jun 17 , at 1:27 PM, Stephen Humphreys wrote: In all honesty (and I don't mean to burst your bubble here) do you think that the alteration of k to K could really happen? Is there a comparable example that's happened like this before Yes. The lower case "L" was a problem for many because it could be confused with the numeral for "one". Here's one of each; can you tell them apart? "l", "1". Probably not. (It may vary depending on the font you're using.) A change was made to use the lower case SCRIPT "L"; like this: "ℓ". That didn't seem to go over too well because it can't be conveniently typed on a standard keyboard. Then they changed it and made a temporary exception to the rule that there be only one form of every unit symbol; they made both the lower case letter l and the capital letter L acceptable (but not the script ℓ), with the proviso that, after trying out both, one would eventually be made the only correct symbol and the other would be dropped. It's been some years now and they haven't made any move to choose one over the other. So, yes, they do make changes, but rarely, and when they do, they don't aways do a good job of it (IMHO). Bill Hooper 1810 mm tall Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA PS I've used the script L (like this: ℓ) in the above. I can't guarantee that it will look like a script L on your computer. ========================== SImplification Begins With SI. ==========================
