The Wikipedia Manual of Style can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style
The section on Units of Measurement are at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Units_of_measurement
At the top of the latter is this:
[quote]
The main unit in which a quantity is expressed should generally be an SI
unit or non-SI unit officially accepted for use with the SI. However:
- Scientific articles may also use specialist units appropriate for the
branch of science in question.
- In non-scientific articles relating to the United States, the main
unit is generally an American customary unit (22 pounds (10 kg)).
- In non-scientific articles relating to the United Kingdom, although
the main unit is generally a metric unit (10 kg (22 pounds)), Imperial
units are still used as the main units in some contexts (7 miles (11 km)
by road).
[end quote]
The Mk 16 torpedo article would fall in that second exception, in the
minds of most people. Also, at the time the Mk 16 was developed and used
in the fleet, customary US non-SI units were prevalent.
I could reverse the order of equivalent units or even omit all non-SI
units by re-editing the page. However, that likely would start a blitz
of emails and back-and-forth editing that would be non-productive for
our purposes. In a scientific article I would have no qualms about
putting SI first and perhaps even omitting non-SI units.
We should seek to educate, not to alienate, non-users of the SI.
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 2013-05-22 17:01, c...@traditio.com wrote:
Jim-- I thought that Wikipedia's style guide required metric units
(after all it is an *international* encyclopedia), with inch-pound units
in parentheses after. I don't recall whether the parenthetical units
are optional or mandatory. I can see how that would create practical
problems. If litres, for example, were converted parenthetically to
gallons, which gallons would they be: U.S. or Imperial? You might want
to check about the current style guide. --Martin Morrison
============
On Wed, 22 May 2013, James Frysinger wrote:
One of the ways that we can promote proper SI usage is to correct
errors in that usage when used in public. Many emails have been posted
to this list telling of efforts, many successful, to do so.
One such set of public documents are those that appear on Wikipedia.
This system allows public editors who can then correct errors
themselves. I have just done so.
A Wikipedia page on Mk 16 torpedoes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_16_torpedo
gave rated the explosive energy content in its warhead in units of
joules per gigameter. The author intended, I'm sure, to express that
as joules per gram, but he or she used "J/Gm" as the unit symbol
instead of "J/g".
Besides fixing that, I also did some editing on replacing
inappropriate hyphens and commas with spaces, non-breaking spaces
( ), or nothing at all. A few other non-breaking spaces were
inserted where needed.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia provides its authors with a conversion
program. So, for example, an author can provide the information "15 ft
6 in" with the appropriate convert command and a parenthetical metric
value will be added following the original "15 ft 6 in". Another
webpage I had hope to tweak used this, preventing direct action by me.
That conversion program automatically inserts a comma in 4-digit
numbers. I would prefer making that an option of the author's, as the
page cited above did.
A few years ago that conversion program would convert speeds to "kph"
if the authors told it to. I lobbied successfully, it seems. Now,
apparently, when the author's coding tells the program to provide
speed conversions to "kph" it automatically changes that to "km/h".
Yes, it's a small victory, but one that I savor.
I encourage those who are so inclined to register as Wikipedia
editors. It's easy to do. And it's gratifying to see your corrections
take effect on the Web almost immediately! The Wikipedia pages will
tell you how to register.
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
