I'm not convinced foreign = objectionable; however I agree with Gene that NASA should use the "meter" spelling. The US government (through NIST and the Government Printing Office) officially recognizes meter as preferred over metre. It is extremely confusing to the citizenry if the government can't stick to the government recommendation. I can only see allowing each agency free choice on this as further confusing Americans and delaying, not helping, metrication.
--- On Sat, 3/19/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:50113] Re: Another NASA use of Ye Olde English units To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, March 19, 2011, 11:38 AM 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) > > > > > > > >
