Pat, May I offer some disagreement with the point below. OIML Recommendation 63 and ISO Stds. 91-1 and 91-2 explicitly endorse the API Petroleum Measurement Tables 1-60. While this do include metric, they also include API gravity, US gallons and barrels, long and short tons. and even (oh the horror, the Fahrenheit temperature scale and the reference temperature 60 °F).
It seems to me that all these terms used in the American petroleum industry are adequately defined or accepted by International standards. The link to the OIML recommendation lists all the tables. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CBsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquality-turkey.kalder.org%2Fexc%2Ffiles%2Flegal_met%2FR063-e94.pdf&rct=j&q=iso+petroleum+measurement+oiml+63&ei=2ugfTKPHI8bgnAezrJWADg&usg=AFQjCNGWYQaCRlvLLkXrhc9JG_QmzOzShg (It is true that the various tables also result in a definition of these terms in terms of metric, but to say they have only "national" definition is factually incorrect. Not that the definition makes them good, just defined.) ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, June 20, 2010 3:45:25 AM Subject: [USMA:47878] The metric system or what? 2 The word, unit, implies that there is a fixed definition of an amount of a quantity that is being multiplied by a number. For example, when we say, 'The window is two metres from the door' We are specifying that the distance between the door and the window is two times the internationally recognised length unit of one metre. The unit, metre, is defined to a very high degree of precision and this is then recognised by engineers and scientists and it is legally specified by international treaty. Conversely, when you say any of things like: The price of oil is $77 per barrel. I asked for a pint of beer. I bought a gallon of oil. We can never exactly know what you are saying unless you specify, which barrel, which pint, or which gallon you are talking about. Barrels, pints, and gallons are sometimes specified locally but there is no international authority or agreement that makes them legal in all nations. In many cases companies or even individuals can specify any amount they like for more or less randomly generated 'measuring words' such as barrels, pints, and gallons. I prefer to use the expression, pre-metric measuring word, unless I am convinced that I am talking about a true measuring unit. For example if I refer to the post 1959 measuring word, inch, and I quite clearly specify that I am referring to its use in English speaking nations only, then I might sometimes refer to a unit called an inch. However to go to all this bother is almost always too much trouble so I usually just refer to the word inch as an old pre-metric measuring word. Expressions such as non-metric units, non-SI units, not-SI units, or units outside SI, have no meaning to me because of the misuse of the word, unit. Here is a list of names for collections of old pre-metric measuring words that I made in 2004. Recently I have used recent remarks written on the United States Metric Association mail list and used these to update my collection of names
