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Re: SI units





On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, Rauber, Joel Phys wrote:

Why does one have to fight the use of the word "kilo" instead of "kilogram",
other than the fact that it isn't blessed by the SI authorities? (I'd rather
have to fight the use of 'kilo' than the battle of fighting the word
'pound').

Another fight we've lost, at least in the U.S.A. is to preserve the
consistency rule of pronunciation: that the emphasis in speaking metric
units with prefixes is on the prefix, and the prefix is one syllable.
Folks in the U.S., even teachers (I hate to admit) pronounce it
ke-LOHM-eter instead of KILO-meter.

And we USAnians spell "liter" where Europeans (I'm told) spell "litre",
but at least we both pronounce it the same way. It's a moot point, since
the liter isn't a sanctioned metric unit anyway, only a "convenience"
unit retained because of past practice.

-- Donald

......................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek Office: 717-893-2079
Professor of Physics FAX: 717-893-2048
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745
dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek
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