

| Subject: | Re: Metric spellings, abbreviations |
| From: | Andrew Grebneff |
| Date: | Tue, 31 Jan 2006 16:25:49 +1300 |
>Okay, for all you folk that are so high on converting to the metric >system....what's the pressure in your tires? Uh, huh. What's that PSI >thing again? > >So, let's see would that be 2.75 bar in my tires...or 3.3 when fully >loaded. Bah, let's use hectopascals instead. 2750 or 3300 (roughly). > >Hmm, I wonder where I can get a tire gauge that measures in >hectopascals. How about fuel-consumption? Some magazines use l/100km, which is ridiculous. Others use km/l, which is fine with me, but I still use mpg (which correctly should be mi/gal...). The standard for pressure in metric is kilopascals (kPa). Standard atmospheric pressure is 101.3kPa. Funny how this unit never seems to be used outside science... ... so I too still use psi. Otherwise it's metric all the way!!! Hmmm... correctly, engine swept volume should be in meters cubed... work it out! Ok, for those many who don't know (and this includes metric countries, no joke), metric abbreviations are ALWAYS in lower-case letters EXCEPT where the syllable is a person's name: W - Watt N - Newton J - Joule P - Pascal kW - kilowatt (probably ought to be kiloWatt) kPa - kilopascal Nm - Newton-meter km - kilometer (-re for those who speak French) m - meter cm - centimeter Units used for: Nm - weight kg - mass m - length m2 (superscript) - area m3 (superscript) - volume The abbreviation is both singular AND plural, so NEVER has a s tacked on (ie there's no such thing as kms). Also a period is NEVER to be used except when the abbreviation comes right at the end of a sentence. >Metric v. SAE is akin to conservative v. liberal, subaru v. vw, diesel v. >hybrid, yin v. yang, etc. > >How long will this thread last? > >Personally, I'm a Whitworth guy... You're WAY out-of-date! -- Andrew Grebneff Dunedin New Zealand Fossil preparator <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR
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