--- James Frysinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > All my co-workers can be assumed to know the full set of metric prefixes
> > (they'll look it up
> if
> > they don't), and if they need to discuss a concept that has no name (i.e.
> > something that
> naturally
> > happens in units of 72 millimeters for some reason) they will actually make
> > up a temporary
> term to
> > simplify communication ("OK, this word salad is getting hard to follow.
> > Let's start calling
> these
> > lengths 'lambdas'"). I'm all for simplifying the units used to communicate
> > formally and to
> > interact with the ordinary public. But for informal engineering
> > discussions and the like,
> those
> > terms probably still have value.
>
> Neither "centiamps" nor "milliamps" would be acceptable in an IEEE
> standard. Unit names are to be spelled out completely or symbolized, as
> in "milliamperes" or "mA". It would be acceptable, though not
> preferable, to use "centiamperes" or "cA". Nor does IEEE accept "kilos",
> "klicks", or the like. In my experience while working in each field,
> yes, engineers are more casual (some might say "sloppy") in casual
> speech when using these units names but I found that physicists are even
> more so.
*insert miffed emoticon here*
I object to the characterization of efficient and concise speech as "sloppy".
Tell me, what
information is being lost by dropping the final syllable there? I am one of
the least "sloppy"
engineers you'll meet. I don't like doing extra work for no reason. I'd
rather expend that joule
of energy on noticing one more possible inconsistency in an idea than on
uttering one more
syllable of an unnecessarily long and easily abbreviated word.
As I already implied, I would use formal writing in a formal document.
However, IEEE doesn't
regulate conversation, and if it did, nothing would ever get done. There is a
proven limit to the
length and complexity of a sentence that the human mind can understand.
Mistakes happen when
people don't do a good job of being concise. Concise matters.
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