The beauty of the International System of units or SI after its French initials is that one has the option to dispense with ever having to use any word for any number higher than thousand on the scale, which thankfully has only one definition everywhere on Earth. See snippet in context here: http://metricpioneer.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/long-scale-and-short-scale-how-much-is-a-billion-it-depends-where-you-live/
----- Message from "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> --------- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:55:17 -0700 From: "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> Reply-To: "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> Subject: [USMA:54128] RE: Don't be a dunce! To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
On groupings, I see Wikipedia specifies the comma as a thousands separator but allows the space in scientific/engineering articles. Nowhere do they require the space as a thousands separator with SI units. In my opinion, the comma should NOT be used as a thousands separator with SI units. I further notice down in the SI section they allow the word micron as a name for 10^-6 m, although they do require the correct symbol. ------------------------- FROM: Martin Vlietstra <vliets...@btinternet.com> TO: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> SENT: Monday, July 14, 2014 8:33 AM SUBJECT: [USMA:54126] RE: Don't be a dunce! The Wikipedia standards can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mosnum. Leading zeros are required except for gun calibres and [baseball] averages. FROM: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] ON BEHALF OF Michael Payne SENT: 14 July 2014 06:19 TO: U.S. Metric Association CC: USMA SUBJECT: [USMA:54122] RE: Don't be a dunce! I’m not saying you should change formats in your job, but it would be good if an organization like Wikipedia which is read worldwide, could adhere to what is an internationally recommended standard instead of the de-facto US format for numbers. If this were done companies like your may adapt to this standard in the future. Mike Payne On 14 Jul 2014, at 07:03, cont...@metricpioneer.com wrote: I would be fired from my job if I were to insist that we change commas to spaces. Get a real-world perspective once in a while. I would LOVE to live in a clean, tidy world with uniformity in such matters. I think we would do well to pick our battles carefully. This battle is akin to Harold insisting that Americans spell metre instead of meter. ----- Message from Michael Payne <metricmik...@gmail.com> --------- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:45:05 +0200 From: Michael Payne <metricmik...@gmail.com> Reply-To: metricmik...@gmail.com Subject: [USMA:54120] RE: Don't be a dunce! To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>I can only speak about the English language Wikipedia. Many English speaking nations use the comma as the decimal, South Africa is one, So do the French and probably most Europeans. It’s a cleaner way of writing and it works for the digits on the right side of the decimal. Claiming Americans like their freedom is the same as saying we’ll stick with American Customary because we’re free to. It does not help in international trade! We need standardisation and this is one standard recommended by NIST. Mike Payne On 14 Jul 2014, at 06:34, Harold_Potsdamer <harold_potsda...@cox.net> wrote: Try checking an authoritative source, like the BIPM before insisting Americans has some sort of derogation based on their claimed exceptionalism. Here is a style guide from the US construction industry: https://www.wbdg.org/ccb/VA/VAMETRIC/guide.pdf Rules for Writing Numbers - Always use decimals, not fractions (write 0.75 g, not ¾g). - Use a zero before the decimal marker for values less than one (write 0.45 g, not .45 g). - Use spaces instead of commas to separate blocks of three digits for any number over four digits (write 45 138 kg or 0.004 46 kg or 4371 kg). Note that this does not apply to the expression of amounts of money. - In the United States, the decimal marker is a period; in other countries a comma usually is used See also 5.3.4 from the NIST guide: http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP330/sp330.pdf Under what authority do you operate under that gives you the right to break the rules? Those who want to do things their way and think they are exceptional are the real dunces. FROM: cont...@metricpioneer.com SENT: Sunday, 2014-07-13 22:51 TO: U.S. Metric Association[1] SUBJECT: [USMA:54114] RE: Don't be a dunce! Harold. Americans use commas or spaces. We love our freedom. ----- Message from Harold_Potsdamer <harold_potsda...@cox.net> --------- Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 20:07:41 -0400 From: Harold_Potsdamer <harold_potsda...@cox.net> Reply-To: harold_potsda...@cox.net Subject: [USMA:54113] RE: Don't be a dunce! To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>Not only that, commas dividing thousands which should be spaces. FROM: br...@bjwhite.net SENT: Sunday, 2014-07-13 14:26 TO: U.S. Metric Association[1] SUBJECT: [USMA:54111] RE: Don't be a dunce! No zeroes on the leading decimals? Tsk tsk tsk. :)-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [USMA:54110] Don't be a dunce! From: cont...@metricpioneer.com Date: Sun, July 13, 2014 11:22 am To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Posted on Facebook and Twitter today: Don't be a dunce! http://MetricPioneer.com/Metrication-America[2] David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917----- End message from Harold_Potsdamer <harold_potsda...@cox.net> ----- David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917----- End message from Michael Payne <metricmik...@gmail.com> ----- David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com[3] 503-428-4917
----- End message from "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> ----- Links: ------ [1] mailto:usma@colostate.edu [2] http://metricpioneer.com/Metrication-America [3] http://www.metricpioneer.com/ David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
