John (Steele), The word "otherwise" excludes equality (symbol "="), making "foreign" not equal to "otherwise objectionable influence"; as is the denial of guidance from NIST special Publication 811 by some other citizens of the USA. I agree with your opinion that NASA should use the "meter" spelling, but NIST and NASA already use the meter spelling except NASA-Houston and some of its contractors who use "foot" as the unit of distance! Gene.
---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 10:16:22 -0700 (PDT) >From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> >Subject: [USMA:50114] Re: Another NASA use of Ye Olde English units >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > 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) > > > > > > > > > > > > >
