... "The cubic metre is just a s simple and understandable as the kilolitre (perhaps simpler and more understa ndable) ...
I don't believe this is true. Most of the common units we encounter every day can be used with our familiar prefixes to raise or lower by the appropriate power of ten. For example to convert meters to centimeters, multiple by 100 - this works for all centi- prefixes.
Now convert cubic meters to cubic centimeters. You don't multiply by 100 because the unit is three dimensional. Obvious to those of us with good mathematics or a scientific education, but for other people this is a lot more awkward than the friendly liter, which has the same good old milli- centi- or (as suggested) kilo- prefixes.
This is why the liter is quite widely used over here (for example, all the fridge capacities in the electrical shops are listed in liters rather than cubic meters). The same applies to the hectare used in area.
To the scientist, coherence is one of the most important properties of choice of units, as it makes conversions and calculations easier and less error prone. To the layman, the ease of simple linear style prefixes applied in the same way to all units is more important.
--------------------------------------------------------- Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696 A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697 Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !" Ireland
