This forum question would indicate the are and centiare still get some use in French-speaking areas. I've also seen it in some French land records (but I can't read French). http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/construction_civil_engineering/1769466-40a_35ca.html The French seem to have historically used mixed base rather than decimal. I definitely would NOT like to see 40 a 35 ca become popular. I think we are well rid of the are and centiare, but I will accept the hectare because the SI Brochure does. I don't think the are helps me remember the hectare, but rather the reverse. I find 1 ha = 1 hm² fairly easy to remember. Since 1 ha = 100 a, 1 a must equal 1 dam².
--- On Wed, 3/14/12, James Frysinger <[email protected]> wrote: From: James Frysinger <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:51521] Re: Hectare To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 10:09 AM Correction (thanks to John Steele for catching this): The stere is a cubic meter. It is still used in some parts of the world, though the SI Brochure does not endorse it. The square meter was once called a centiare, which serves only to lengthen the table I provided, using the same factor of 100. Jim -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108 On 2012-03-13 21:49, James Frysinger wrote: > Paul, > > The hectare is alive and well and frequently used in the United States. > Some fields of endeavor that use it are forestry and agriculture. Yields > in terms of kilograms per hectare or cubic meters per hectare are common > in agricultural research articles, for example. Hectares are used in > geography, geology, and the above fields when the square meter would > require too large a numerical value and the square kilometer too small a > numerical value. Likewise, biological population studies sometimes use > the hectare ("217 nesting pairs of Eastern Bluebirds per hectare"). > > When asked by local folks how large my farm is here in Middle Tennessee, > I tell them "100 hectares". If they ask and press the point I tell them > that's 250 acres. Caving in or educating them about the similarity in > sizes? You be the judge. > > The missing part is what makes the relationship between the hectare and > the square kilometer hard to recall. We should also be permitted to use > the are: > 100 square meters in an are > 100 ares in a hectare (think hecto-...are) > 100 hectares in a square kilometer > By the way, an old name for the square meter was the stere (see some of > our 19th century documents in the U.S.). > > Jim >
