Would you teach people English, and then say you don't care if they say "I ain't got none," or "He be going?" Would you teach people math and then not care if they say two plus two is five or three, as long as they are doing math, it is ok? I think the responsible thing to do is to point out to people that a 5K race is in fact a race using metric units, which many people don't recognize as metric since they see no relationship between K and kilometer.
I understand why people just want people to use SI and not care so much about the rules. But it is the very rules themselves that make SI useful. Since the rules are the same all over the world, regardless of if someone is speaking Hebrew, Chinese, Russian or Arabic, the beauty here is that the symbols and pronunciation are truly international. What if the German symphony decided to play concert A at 420 Hertz, The British at 440 Hertz, and the Americans at 46 Hertz. Beethoven would sound different in different country's orchestras. An international system ceases to be international if different countries can use different symbols for metric units in their countries and no body cares about following international standards. Mark On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 11:43 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > I also share this sentiment. Thanks for sharing that perspective with > us. > > ----- Message from "Ressel, Howard R (DOT)" <[email protected]> > --------- > Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 12:59:12 +0000 > From: "Ressel, Howard R (DOT)" <[email protected]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > Subject: [USMA:53868] RE: Phil Chernack's message > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > My thoughts exactly. > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On > Behalf Of* Harry Wyeth > *Sent:* Thursday, May 22, 2014 5:23 PM > *To:* U.S. Metric Association > *Subject:* [USMA:53860] Phil Chernack's message > > > > I second what Phil wrote about not worrying about the minute; 5 K vs 5 km > or 5 KM or whatever. Or weight vs mass. Or KG vs kg or kilos. Or liter > vs litre. Or however you want to pronounce kilometer. Or "a half liter" > vs "500 ml". It may be nice to debate these fine points here, but it makes > no difference whatever to what the USMA is trying to promote because no one > outside this forum gives a hoot about these points. > > If someone wants to talk about running 10 K races, great! I use the term > myself frequently when telling people distances because I know that it will > probably be understood better than the full word. I would sound silly if I > referred to people "having a mass" of xyz. > > I have said many times that if we can just get people to deal with liters, > meters, and kilos, we would be home free. All the rest is techie stuff to > almost everybody. > > HARRY WYETH > > > > > ----- End message from "Ressel, Howard R (DOT)" <[email protected]> > ----- > > David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 >
