The beauty of the International System of units or SI after its French
initials is that one has the option to dispense with ever having to use any
word for any number higher than thousand on the scale, which thankfully has
only one definition everywhere on Earth. See snippet in context here:
http://metricpioneer.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/long-scale-and-short-scale-how-much-is-a-billion-it-depends-where-you-live/
----- Message from "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> ---------
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:55:17 -0700
From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:54128] RE: Don't be a dunce!
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
On groupings, I see Wikipedia specifies the comma as a thousands
separator but allows the space in scientific/engineering articles.
Nowhere do they require the space as a thousands separator with SI
units. In my opinion, the comma should NOT be used as a thousands
separator with SI units.
I further notice down in the SI section they allow the word micron as
a name for 10^-6 m, although they do require the correct symbol.
-------------------------
FROM: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]>
TO: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
SENT: Monday, July 14, 2014 8:33 AM
SUBJECT: [USMA:54126] RE: Don't be a dunce!
The Wikipedia standards can be seen at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mosnum. Leading zeros are
required except for gun calibres and [baseball] averages.
FROM: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] ON BEHALF OF Michael Payne
SENT: 14 July 2014 06:19
TO: U.S. Metric Association
CC: USMA
SUBJECT: [USMA:54122] RE: Don't be a dunce!
I’m not saying you should change formats in your job, but it
would be good if an organization like Wikipedia which is read worldwide,
could adhere to what is an internationally recommended standard instead
of the de-facto US format for numbers.
If this were done companies like your may
adapt to this standard in the future.
Mike Payne
On 14 Jul 2014, at 07:03,
[email protected] wrote:
I would be fired from my job if I were to
insist that we change commas to spaces. Get a real-world perspective
once in a while. I would LOVE to live in a clean, tidy world with
uniformity in such matters. I think we would do well to pick our battles
carefully. This battle is akin to Harold insisting that Americans spell
metre instead of meter.
----- Message from Michael Payne <[email protected]> ---------
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:45:05 +0200
From: Michael Payne <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: [USMA:54120] RE: Don't be a dunce!
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
I can only speak about the English language Wikipedia. Many English
speaking nations use the comma as the decimal, South Africa is one, So
do the French and probably most Europeans. It’s a cleaner way of
writing and it works for the digits on the right side of the decimal.
Claiming Americans like their freedom is
the same as saying we’ll stick with American Customary because we’re
free to. It does not help in international trade! We need
standardisation and this is one standard recommended by NIST.
Mike Payne
On 14 Jul 2014, at
06:34, Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> wrote:
Try checking an authoritative source, like the BIPM
before insisting Americans has some sort of derogation based on their
claimed exceptionalism.
Here is a style guide from the
US construction industry:
https://www.wbdg.org/ccb/VA/VAMETRIC/guide.pdf
Rules for Writing Numbers
-
Always use decimals, not
fractions (write 0.75 g, not ¾g).
-
Use a zero before the decimal
marker for values less than one (write 0.45
g, not .45 g).
-
Use spaces instead of commas to
separate blocks of three digits for any
number over four digits (write
45 138 kg or 0.004 46 kg or 4371 kg). Note
that this does not apply to the
expression of amounts of money.
-
In the United States, the
decimal marker is a period; in other countries a comma usually is used
See also 5.3.4 from the NIST
guide:
http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP330/sp330.pdf
Under what authority do you
operate under that gives you the right to break the rules? Those who
want to do things their way and think they are exceptional are the real
dunces.
FROM:
[email protected]
SENT: Sunday, 2014-07-13
22:51
TO: U.S. Metric
Association[1]
SUBJECT: [USMA:54114] RE:
Don't be a dunce!
Harold. Americans use commas or
spaces. We love our freedom.
----- Message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> ---------
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 20:07:41 -0400
From: Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: [USMA:54113] RE: Don't be a dunce!
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Not only that, commas dividing thousands which should be spaces.
FROM: [email protected]
SENT: Sunday,
2014-07-13 14:26
TO: U.S. Metric
Association[1]
SUBJECT:
[USMA:54111] RE: Don't be a dunce!
No zeroes on the leading decimals? Tsk tsk tsk. :)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [USMA:54110] Don't be a dunce!
From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, July 13, 2014 11:22 am
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Posted on
Facebook and Twitter today:
Don't be a dunce! http://MetricPioneer.com/Metrication-America[2]
David Pearl
www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917
----- End message from Harold_Potsdamer <[email protected]> -----
David Pearl
www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917
----- End message from Michael Payne <[email protected]> -----
David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com[3]
503-428-4917
----- End message from "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> -----
Links:
------
[1] mailto:[email protected]
[2] http://metricpioneer.com/Metrication-America
[3] http://www.metricpioneer.com/
David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
