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Re: Calories, calories, & joules



On Sun, 14 Sep 1997, Jim Green wrote:

But in a HS physics class or a college physics class for physicists,
chemists, and/or engineers, I think it a disservice to use calories no
matter how convenient or entertaining -- "because it is the way we have
always said it". As you allude above there are too many things we do because
"it is the way we have always done it". At some point we WILL be using the
SI -- Don't we have some modicum of obligation to proselyte it? For
example, it is not too painful to refer to room temperature in oC (or even
K) is it?

I think we should demonstrate the advantages of the SI system without
pretending that those advantages are not often outweighed by other
factors. I can't begin to imagine that there will *ever* come a day when
even scientists--let alone the unwashed masses--will abandon non-SI units.
What a sad day it will be--and what an enormous step backward--when we
deny ourselves the use of such meaningful units as the year, the day, the
astronomical unit, the lightyear, the solar mass, etc.

John
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A. John Mallinckrodt http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~ajm
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