Re: what about the Calorie? WAS:Re: Stop using calories?

[Maurice Barnhill <mvb@UDel.Edu>]

LUDWIK KOWALSKI wrote:
> The only number I would like to keep secret (responding to Santos) is
> 32 ft/s^2. Conversions to SI? Yes. Doing physics with common units?
> No.

Yes, but...

[32 ft/sec/sec] / [9.8 m/sec/sec] = 3.3 ft/m .  I put on the cover of
the test both values of g but NOT the number of feet in a meter.  At
least a few students will learn to do the division to avoid memorizing
another number, and using a process two different ways is a long step
toward understanding.
-- 
Maurice Barnhill, mvb@udel.edu                
http://www.physics.udel.edu/~barnhill/          
Physics Dept., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716