John Kilopascal wrote in USMA 221866 >A metre is a unit of length. A meter is a device that is used to measure >something. Thus, a micrometre and a micrometer are not the same thing. A >micrometre can be calibrated to measure in micrometres.
>I think of a litre as a unit of volume and a liter (pronounced like lighter) >as a type of marking pen (Hi-liter). >There is a logic and sense to spelling the units with -re and the "devices" >with -er. But, somehow the "educated brains" in this country missed that >one. The only thing to do is ignore their ignorance and spell the SI units >with -re and if someone asks, explain why. >John And in USMA 21889: >I forgot to mention, but micrometre is pronounced differently from >micrometer. Micrometre is pronounced something like: my-crow-me-ter, >whereas micrometer is pronounced more like my-crom-eh-ter. the spelling >clues you into the correct pronunciation for both litre vs. liter and metre >vs. meter >John And in in USMA 21892: >What about the American use of theatre, septre, centre, mitre, and other >examples? It seems that the -re spelling is used and associated with the >upper class and the -er spelling with the lower classes. I'll stick >with -re. >John The British edition of "SI The International System of Units" names Chester H. Page of the National Bureau of Standards and Paul Vigoureux of the National Physical Laboratory as editors. It uses -re. The American edition, from the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) uses -er because the (U.S.) Government Printing Office insisted that was the American way of spelling. Chester H. Page demanded that his name be removed as an editor of the brochure. I find it amusing that Louis Sokol, the grand old man of the US Metric Association and of Czech background, was a strong supporter of -re. Albert J. Mettler, the Secretary of the Canadian Metric Association and of German-Swiss background, supported -er, and produced a survey of metric usage that indicated that more countries, with more population, use -er than the countries that use -re. -- Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
