John, I sort of like the spelling tonne instead of metric ton. At lease when you see it you know right away what it means. The phrase metric ton adds extra syllables to utter or type.
Jerry ________________________________ From: John Dunlop <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:45:17 AM Subject: [USMA:42599] Re: REALLY using the SI ... and a Mg would never be confused with a tonne, or a ton, or a short ton, or a long ton. At least not off-ton. John At 09:17 AM 1/26/2009, Mike Palumbo wrote: That should read absolute zero, my apologies. -M Mike Palumbo wrote: I personally do not believe that kelvin and the thermodynamic temperature scale are appropriate for use when talking about temperatures that humans feel & interact with on a daily basis. Humans are not going to deal with absolute, but we will surely deal with the freezing & boiling points of water. I'd much prefer to say, "It's really hot out, must be almost 35 degrees!" much more than "Must be almost 309!". -M Paul Trusten wrote: From that last exchange between Jim Frysinger and Stan Doore, I am contemplating the corruptions of the SI we have lived with, and I wonder if even the metricated world could stand international standardization of measurement. Consider: * kelvins instead of degrees Celsius for temperature * square meters or square kilometers instead of hectares * megagrams instead of tonnes or metric tons * In U.S. medical laboratories, millimoles per liter instead of milligrams per deciliter for results involving concentrations Actually, I've never seen a megagram used, but I don't understand why it isn't used. Its symbol, Mg, could hardly be mistaken for the milligram, and,even so, no one is going to mistakenly ship someone else one milligram of rice. Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org> 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 US +1(432)528-7724 [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
