Dear Brian and All,
Paul Trusten, a pharmacist in Massachusetts originally devised the acronym
WOMBAT.
It stands for: 'Ways Of Measuring Badly in America Today' or ŒWaste Of
Money, Brains, And Time'.
The second expansion of the acronym accurately describes all non-SI units,
and the first accurately describes all those used in the USA.
WOMBAT has the advantages that it is a single word; and it is an acronym so
it doesn¹t need to have a specific meaning.
After Paul Trusten introduced WOMBAT to the USMA listserv it quickly became
very popular because it is short, humorous, sarcastic, and implies that the
old units are structurally as primitive as Australian marsupial mammals.
Another advantage of the acronym WOMBAT is that it is all-inclusive. You can
use it for all the old non-SI units, for the old Imperial units and even for
old metric but non-SI units such as calories and kilocalories.
However, there is no such thing as a ŒWOMBAT system¹ - it is just WOMBAT.
With a little licence, I have also used the acronym ŒWOMBAT¹ for:
ŒWays Of Measuring Badly in Australia Today.¹
The acronym, WOMBAT, is useful because there is a fundamental difficulty in
discussing the old non-SI units that are still used in some parts of the
world because there is no official, collective name for the old units we
used in the past.
To help organise my thoughts about old units I have made a list of other
expressions that are used to describe old units. They are:
Non-SI
Non-SI is accurate and inclusive but many people don¹t yet know what SI
means. Besides non-SI is clumsy to say and it is too similar to SI.
System
System as in ŒEnglish system¹ or ŒImperial system¹ is totally wrong because
there never was a system, just a random mixture of units. The terms ŒEnglish
system¹ and ŒImperial system¹ should be avoided since most of the old units
are unrelated and certainly do not constitute any sort of coherent Œsystem.¹
In any case the majority of them are not ŒEnglish¹ or ŒImperial¹ having been
originally invented by the Romans, Babylonians, medieval Europeans, various
industries, businesses, and sometimes individual scientists and engineers.
IP, fp, or ifp
IP for inch-pound units, fp for foot-pound, or ifp for inch-foot-pound are
neither accurate nor inclusive. These names are sometimes appropriate in an
engineering context but they are of less use in other fields. They are also
unsatisfactory on other grounds, since many old units, such as the gallon or
acre, have little to do with either inches or pounds. Also, although many
non-SI units are related to the pound they are not necessarily related to
the inch. In legal terms the old measures were more likely to be based on
the foot or the yard rather than the inch. These terms also have the
drawback that they do not include any of the obsolete metric units.
Imperial
Imperial is neither accurate nor inclusive. It is a long time since there¹s
been an empire that was able to set standards of measurement for the world
or even for portions of it. Imperial units is even less appropriate for use
in connection with old units in the USA. They were never used there;
Imperial units were developed in England after the USA became independent.
USC or US Customary
USC for US Customary is not accurate or inclusive; for example it excludes
Imperial units. Many SI units are also customary. Examples include second,
litre, watt, volt, ampere, and hertz.
English
English is neither accurate nor inclusive, and it is ambiguous as most
non-SI units are not of English origin. And English units is wrong because
the old units aren¹t the units used in England today. This word also
confuses English units with the Imperial and USA units that have the same
name.
Olde English Mixture
Olde English Mixture has the same problems as English. It is also confusing
because many non-SI units are recent inventions; they¹re not old.
Emu
Emu meaning English mixture of units has the same problems as English and
Olde English Mixture.
British colonial units
British colonial units is not accurate or inclusive. Most of the British
colonies used Imperial units, not colonial units or USA units, which shared
the same names.
American
American is wrong because it is not synonymous with the old units. That
assumption is patently false, since the USA has based the definitions of all
their old units on metric units since 1893. This was when the USA Congress
adopted the metre as a standard and defined the inch, foot, yard, and pound
in relation to the metre and kilogram. ŒAmerican¹ really means metric or SI.
Customary units
Customary units is wrong because most of them are no longer customary
anywhere in the world, and they will become less customary in the future.
USA customary (USC) units are really SI units in disguise. USC can not
survive without SI and needs it absolutely in order to be applicable for
high technology work. This is a misuse of SI standards to prop up a
competing set of units. If barley corns, human feet and the length of arms
were good enough for high level measurements then United States Customary
units would not have to be propped up by SI standards.
Bastard units
Bastard units are those that are neither fish nor fowl. These are composite
units made up from parts of various methods without definable parentage.
Examples are grams per mile, pounds per tonne, watts per square inch, ounces
per square metre, and micrograms per square foot. These are the worst kind
of units and should be avoided at all times.
Standard
Standard, sometimes written as Std. and sometimes as USS for US Standard, is
not appropriate as it is not accurate; SI is the world standard in all
countries in the world, mostly since last century. Even in the USA, the last
country in the world to change to SI, the metre and the kilogram have been
the legal standards since 1893.
NSIU
NSIU for non-SI units is technically correct but seems vague. Besides it
sounds like the abbreviation of a university in the USA.
PSIU
PSIU for pre-SI units has the same problems as NSIU.
Unacceptable units
Unacceptable units is too vague, but it may be useful in some circumstances,
especially since it is technically accurate.
Deprecated units
Deprecated units is correct for a small group of units that have been
deprecated by Conférence Générale de Poids et Mesures (CGPM). However, most
people do not know what this word means and some non-SI units have not yet
been officially deprecated by CGPM.
Colonial units
Colonial units immediately identifies old units and sets them in a political
context as being left-over remnants from the time of colonialism without too
much of a political axe to grind against England or the United States.
Ye olde imperial colonial english incoherent mix of non-system wombat units
Ye olde imperial colonial english incoherent mix of non-system wombat units
is probably a bit long.
And what about: historical units (or hysterical units), (or prehistoric
units), ancient units, archaic units, Fred Flintstone units (FFUs), old
units, incoherent units, old fashioned units, bad units, unsystematic units,
old traditional units, old customary units, old standard units, or formerly
traditional units, formerly customary units, formerly standard units, etc.
An interesting question that arises when you consider these issues is ŒWhat
is (or was) the Imperial standard?¹ Of all of the old measurement units that
we¹ve listed, which is the fundamental unit, and what is its official
definition? What official standards exist (or have ever existed) for the old
measures?
In my formal writing, I will continue to use Œnon-SI,¹ or Œunacceptable
units¹ but I suspect that from time to time the word colonial or the acronym
WOMBAT will creep into my vocabulary.
In the light of these not-so-good choices, it¹s not surprising that in the
USA as that nation changes to SI, many of them have taken to using the
acronym WOMBAT to describe all of the old ways of our enormous, chaotic,
collection of non-SI units.
In fact, if you include this acronym, WOMBAT, in your SI conversations, it
may be one of the most constructive things you can do.
--
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
CAMS - Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
- United States Metric Association
ASM - Accredited Speaking Member
- National Speakers Association of Australia
Member, International Federation for Professional Speakers
on 2001/05/13 04.04, Brian J White at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Thanks for the copy of the letter...but I must say just how much I dislike
> the term WOMBAT.
>
> I still find it amazing we are trying to promote an international standard,
> and we can't even agree to come up with a good name for the measurement
> competition. heh.
>
> B
>
> At 13:56 2001-05-12 -0400, Norman Werling wrote:
>> Copy for USMA list members.
>>
>> Norm
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Norman Werling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: "Representative Cynthia McKinney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Senator Max
>> Cleland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Sent: 2001May12 13:41
>> Subject: International System of Units (SI, metric)
>>
>>
>>> Dear Senator Max Cleland, Senator Zell Miller and Congresswoman Cynthia
>>> McKinney,
>>>
>>> I will be mailing you each a copy of this email which is being processed
>>> through my Outlook Express system. I repeat my dismay that you all refuse
>>> to reply to emails which are not sent to your web sites or which have not
>>> been sent via US mail. Any automatic acknowledgments do not count if your
>>> or your staffs' reply is not addressed to the subject matter.
>>>
>>> Obviously you can tell that I am an advocate of the United States fully
>>> utilizing the International System of Units (SI-metric). The present
>>> hodgepodge of archaic units referred to as US Customary or US Standard
>>> is_not_the equal or a valid substitute for SI. I prefer to call US
>>> Customary WOMBAT (Way Of Measuring Badly in America Today).
>>>
>>> I repeat myself when I say it is amusing or even laughable that Congress
>>> yielded to highway contractors' pressure to revert to "English" units when
>>> the British are changing to SI-metric. The British must do so if they
>> want
>>> to be part of the European Union. I admit that there is reactionary
>>> (conservative) led backlash against SI-metric and even Britain's
>> membership
>>> in the EU, but the tide is for SI-metric and for the EU and against the
>>> reactionary backlash.
>>>
>>> Remember, SI-metric is not just Europe, it is Japan and all of Asia, it is
>>> all of Africa, it is Latin America, it is the rest of the English speaking
>>> world, it is the entire world outside of the US.
>>>
>>> India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica are all nations of
>>> British heritage who have completed or are nearly complete in converting
>> to
>>> SI-metric.
>>>
>>> I feel that it is US government and industrial interests which are
>> impeding
>>> Canada's completion of their conversion to SI-metric.
>>>
>>> Certainly all three of you know that the entire world has been replacing
>>> their individual archaic measurement units with SI-metric. Not all
>> nations
>>> used to use the British Imperial units. The U.S. (so-called) Customary
>>> differed in volume from the British Imperial. Many other nations changed
>>> from their own non-metric systems which may have been similar to the
>> British
>>> Imperial but were not the same.
>>>
>>> Look back in time when everyone in the world used "sun" time before the
>>> advent of Standard Time. Do you not see the similarities?
>>>
>>> Are you not thankful that the US Congress adopted decimal currency in the
>>> late 1700's? Britain did not dump 4 farthings to a pence, 12 pence to a
>>> shilling, and 20 shillings to a pound sterling until 1971. The same kind
>> of
>>> people in Britain who opposed that action are the kinds who oppose using
>>> SI-metric now.
>>>
>>> You all may think that there is American opposition to switching to
>>> SI-metric, but I believe that there is more apathy than opposition among
>>> Americans. My 45 year old daughter, when confronted by my Celsius
>>> thermometer on my back fence said, "I am ready to change but we (meaning
>>> Americans) all need to change at the same time and just have it over
>> with."
>>>
>>> Congress often must take the lead when something is worthwhile and
>>> necessary. Look at legislation concerning civil rights, industrial
>> safety,
>>> and the environment and you must agree that voluntary approaches have
>>> serious flaws. If my company wants to do the "right thing", but other
>>> companies are not required to do the "right thing", my company is placed
>> at
>>> a competitive disadvantage.
>>>
>>> There is an American business organization called TABD, which stands for
>>> TransAtlantic Business Dialogue. That group succeeded in pressuring the
>>> European Union into a ten-year extension to 2009 before the EU will
>> require
>>> only SI-metric measures to the exclusion of Imperial or WOMBAT, the
>>> so-called US Customary. I do not trust TABD because they promised to take
>>> steps in the next ten years toward bringing the US into compliance with
>> SI,
>>> but they and their kind promised the same thing in 1979 and 1989.
>>>
>>> Now we are confronted with the possibility of an expanded western
>> hemisphere
>>> trading zone. I would be totally dismayed, disappointed, and downright
>>> angry if American companies were to overwhelm all of the other nations of
>>> our hemisphere with America's antiquated non-decimal measures to the
>>> exclusion of the modern already adopted SI metric measures. I emphasize
>>> right here and now that applying decimals to the use of inches, feet,
>> yards,
>>> miles, ounces, pounds, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, and gallons is_not_
>> a
>>> solution. At some point you must still convert with factors of 12, 3,
>> 5280,
>>> 16,16, 8, 2, or 4 in order to relate one or the other to the other.
>>>
>>> With SI-metric, for distance move the decimal point to convert from
>>> kilometer to hectometer to decameter to meter to decimeter to centimeter
>> to
>>> millimeter. For volume, move the decimal point to convert from kiloliter
>>> to hectoliter to dekaliter to liter to deciliter to centiliter to
>>> milliliter. For mass (weight), move the decimal point to convert from
>>> kilogram to hectogram to decagram to gram to decigram to centigram to
>>> milligram.
>>>
>>> I was age 39 in 1975 when Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. I
>>> decided to give SI-metric a chance and readily found that it is mush
>> easier
>>> and looked foreword to the US joining the rest of the world. Congress
>> took
>>> a few steps forward but then has taken many more serious steps back.
>>>
>>> Also do not forget that the inch, the foot, the yard, and the statute mile
>>> all owe the definition of their very existence to their relationship to
>> the
>>> meter. Let's just use the meter!
>>>
>>> I cannot see how it is in the best long term interests of the US to not
>> join
>>> with the rest of the world in fully using SI. Do you think that American
>>> business should have the power to force other nations, large or small, to
>> be
>>> inundated with archaic WOMBAT (Way Of Measuring Badly in America Today)
>>> units when their laws all provide for goods measured in the International
>>> System of Units (SI)? We keep saying through government and business that
>>> we will change to SI, but our actions belie our words.
>>>
>>> Looking forward to your replies via email and/or US mail,
>>>
>>> Norman V. Werling
>>> 1240 Hunters Drive
>>> Stone Mountain, GA 30083-2545
>>> 404-292-9328
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
