I am in total agreement with your main point: it is too complex to use as a metric week poster, and merely leads to arguing over the right-hand side, not adoption of the left-hand side. A metric week poster should cover Metric 101, not the entire SI. The left-hand side has many units that the average person would never encounter, and perhaps shouldn't be in a basic poster. However, in a metric course covering advanced topics, they need to be covered. I would argue in the 8th Ed., SI Brochure, the dalton (Da) is on equal footing with the mouthful "unified atomic mass unit" and should be moved from the right-side to the left side. Pat, The right-hand side is stacked to look as horrible as possible, and, in my mind, only leads to arguments. The heading says "still in use in the US" and many aren't: *Unique UK units should be removed: stone, long ton, long hundredweight, UK teaspoons, UK cups, etc. We don't use them, and many Americans would not know the difference from a US unit. (or change the heading) *It is not reasonable to include both a unit and its abbreviation, unless unit and symbol are shown on the other side, ex British Thermal Unit, calorie (but the many flavors based on temperature need to be listed). *Many terms are basically archaic in US usage; they haven't been used in decades: minum, dram, barleycorn. *Some alternate terms: rod is occasionally used here. I've never seen perch, rood. I have never seen "thou" used for 0.001", we say "mil." This is not meant to be all-inclusive. We would have to agree to rules first on pruning the list. If you use in seminars, does it make the point, or just cause arguments? We seem to argue about it every time here.
--- On Mon, 9/21/09, John Frewen-Lord <j...@frewston.plus.com> wrote: From: John Frewen-Lord <j...@frewston.plus.com> Subject: [USMA:45857] Re: Posters for National Metric Week in the USA To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Monday, September 21, 2009, 2:40 AM Dear all: While I think Pat's poster idea at http://metricationmatters.com/docs/SIMetricUnitsVsUSAMeasures.pdf is good in concept, I do have some issues with the actual poster itself. As it stands, i believe it can, in a general workplace environment, actually do more harm than good, as it makes metric look too hard! And the use of so many 'pre-metric' (as the non-metric side is titled) units looks a bit too contrived to be believable (even if true), while some bits of it are open to challenge. Overall, and without getting too specific, I believe that the following changes should be made: 1. List only the first 5 base units - the remaining two are not commonly encountered in daily use in most industries and professions, and can scare people into thinking they have to learn some strange new units in order to understand metric - they don't.. 2. Likewise, filter the derived units and the prefixes to those commonly encountered (e.g. for prefixes, limit the list from say nano to tera). 3. There are some issues regarding the choice of units in the 'pre-metric' list, viz: Again, list only those units commonly encountered in daily use in most industries or professions (this will still be a big list). Why the inclusion of compound units (e.g. gallons per day) - why not equivalent compound units on the metric side? Why the inclusion of UK-specific units (the list is headed "...still in use in the USA") Why the inclusion of Mach number (Mach numbers are dimensionless, and can be converted to km/h or mph, or any other compound unit involving distance per unit of time) Is it right to say that the metric yard, millimeters of mercury, and so on, are 'pre-metric'? They may not be SI, but they are metric (sort of). Cheers John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Trusten To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 6:09 AM Subject: [USMA:45856] Re: Posters for National Metric Week in the USA Pat et al., Please note that the NCTM Web page for National Metric Week has not yet been updated for 2009. This year's NMW runs for the week of 4 to 10 October (not sure why the 2008 NCTM dates only covered five days). I have contacted NCTM to request that this page be updated. Paul T. ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 19 September, 2009 20:13 Subject: [USMA:45848] Posters for National Metric Week in the USA Dear All, This year 'National Metric Week' will be from October 6 to October 10, see http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=10248 You may recall that I suggested that one way to support National Metric Week in the USA is to place posters around your place of work. With the help of Bill Hooper and Jim Palfreyman, I have slightly revised this suggestion for a poster: http://metricationmatters.com/docs/SIMetricUnitsVsUSAMeasures.pdf So now the item from the Metrication matters newsletter would read: One thing you can do to promote the metric system at your work place is to pin pro-metric items on to notice boards around your school or work place. Here are some that you might like to download and print ready for 'National Metric Week' in the USA. For a general-purpose notice board think about: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/degreesCelsiusPoster.pdf , http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/NationalMetricDay.pdf and http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/SIMetricUnitsVsUSAMeasures.pdf Or if you work in a scientific or engineering environment you might like: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/EnergyWords.pdf The 'National Metric Week' is strongly supported by the U.S. Metric Association; see http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/metric-week.html for details. As a gift for your friends and to remind them of 'National Metric Week' you might like to pass along this one minute YouTube reference to 'Let's Get Metric' by Scott Wheatley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeyGEwjLPGw Or if you want to illustrate the cost of not going metric refer them to the YouTube video, American Chopper vs The Metric System, where the mechanics are trying to figure out the answer to the question: 'What is the difference between 180 millimetres and 140 millimetres'? except they seem unaware of the initial metric design and build specifications for this all-metric model bike, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omh8Ito-05M And finally a YouTube reference for schools apparently made with the support of NASA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPQ_q59xyw&feature=rec-HM-rev-rn Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
