Pat, I support the objective of your "Whole Number Rule."
However, your examples imply that "gram" is the unit of mass, as with the older cgs system of units. The lack of *coherence* of the gram with other SI units can be avoided if one accepts symbols such as mkg, kkg, Mkg, etc. in the special case of the kilogram, to maintain coherence, while excluding double prefixes for other SI units, at least until the CIPM adopts a new symbol for kg. For example, I recommend kkg rather than Mg. Historically, when measurements were relatively isolated, and coherence of units was not considered important, units were defined independently such most numerical values fell between 1 and 1000, unrelated to units for other quantities. That practice does not meet the needs of modern technology. Your "Whole Number Rule" can do both, but please avoid the gram in new applications, except in nutrition and medicine where it is well established. Gene. ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:40:11 +1100 >From: Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [USMA:40658] Re: Inappropriate use of centi- >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> >Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> >... > Dear Jesse and All, > You may be interested in a new article that I have > written on the issue of prefix choice. It is called, > Whole number rule and you will find it at the very > bottom of my articles web page at: > http://www.metricationmatters.com/articles ...
