As a citizen of the USA, born in Pennsylvania, I consider the misspelling of meter as coming from a "foreign" source or otherwise objectionable influence. EAM
---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:42:13 -0400 >From: "Kilopascal" <[email protected]> >Subject: [USMA:50103] Re: Another NASA use of Ye Olde English units >To: <[email protected]>, "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > Remek & Bill, > > I highly doubt that if someone sees the word > kilometre they would think it is coming from outside > the US. You are attributing to much intelligence > to Americans, especially reporters and editors. > They would simply think it is a spelling error. So, > don't make more out of it than what it is or else > you will start another useless thread on spelling. > > If Bill signed his message to them as being a US > Metric Association member he will probably be > ignored as harbouring a bias against things > American. That would stick out more in their mind > than the spelling of a word. > > Bill said: > > > What's wrong with: > > ... slowing the spacecraft by 3104 km/h ... The > rendezvous took place about 154 million kilometres > from Earth ... through its 7.9-billion-kilometre > journey. > > > > or even simpler > > > > ... slowing the spacecraft by 3.104 Mm/h ... The > rendezvous took place about 154 Gm from Earth. ... > through its 7.9-Tm journey. > I don't understand why the spacecraft speed has to > be 3104 instead of 3100 km/h. The extra 4 km/h is > just noise. The speed could even have been stated > as 860 km/s. I too would prefer to see 154 Gm from > earth and either a 7.9 Tm or 8.0 Tm journey, as I > loathe a mixture of numbers and words. That > practice is a hang-over from USC/imperial as neither > hodge-podge has an effective means of handling large > and small numbers. It would look silly in USC to > write of a 4 900 000 000 mile journey, so zeros are > omitted by inserting words like million, milliard, > billion, billiard, etc. In SI we have prefixes to > replace those words. We need to use them and make > ourselves comfortable seeing them in print. > > Most intelligent people are use to the prefixes > mega, giga, tera, etc in the description of memory > and hard drive space. So NASA can not claim that > these prefixes are unknown to the readers. They may > be unknown to the reporter and editor, but any one > interested enough in space travel would be > intelligent enough to understand the prefixes. > Those who don't understand the prefixes most likely > wouldn't understand much else in the article and > wouldn't even bother to read it or even be bothered > with it. > > > >[USMA:50103] Re: Another NASA use of Ye Olde English units > > Remek Kocz > Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:31:20 -0700 > > I hate to stir up the spelling discussion again, but sending comments to > NASA using non-US-English spellings of the units makes us look like people > from outside the US having a beef with the agency's presentation. The place > is already intransigent, let's not give them any more ammunition to say "no > metric for us." > > Remek > > On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Bill Hooper <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Another case of resistance to metric units from NASA. > > Below is my reply including the quotes from NASA's press release to which I > > was referring. > > > > Bill Hooper > > Member, US Metric Association > > www.metric.org > > > > ======================== > > > > Would it kill you to let us know what those figures are in metric in > > addition to (or preferably instead of) King George's Olde English measures? > > > > You [NASA] wrote, in RELEASE : 11-079 - NASA'S MESSENGER Spacecraft Begins > > Historic Orbit Around Mercury > > > > ... slowing the spacecraft by 1,929 miles per hour ... The rendezvous took > > place about 96 million miles from Earth. > > ... through its 4.9-billion-mile journey. > > > > > > > > What's wrong with: > > ... slowing the spacecraft by 3104 km/h ... The rendezvous took place about > > 154 million kilometres from Earth. > > ... through its 7.9-billion-kilometre journey. > > > > or even simpler > > > > ... slowing the spacecraft by 3.104 Mm/h ... The rendezvous took place > > about 154 Gm from Earth. > > ... through its 7.9-Tm journey. > > > > where Mm = megametres (1 Mm = 1000 km) > > and Gm = gigametres (1 Gm = 1 000 Mm) > > and Tm = terrametres (1 Tm = 1000 Gm) > > > > > > > >
