COME ON NOW FOLKS!

I got my engineering degree in the early '80s and was educated mostly in the
metric system. Agreed that the units may not be so intuitive when you've
lived surrounded by the (archaic) english "system" of units. Engineering
calculations are far easier in the SI system. No accounting for slugs,
gravitational constants, the difference between pound mass, pound force, and
poundals, etc.

Regarding the temperature conversion from C to F -- both are somewhat
arbitrary scales. For engineering and scientific use one needs to use the
thermodynamic temperature scales of either Rankine (hmmm, an english system
unit named after an Englishman?) or Kelvin (also an Englishman). Using
degrees C to express a temperature delta is perfectly consistent in the
metric system (as Farenheit - a German like Hertz - is consistent within most
english system calculations).

Regarding angular measurements, there is no real "metric" angular unit.
Degrees - minutes - seconds are perfectly acceptable, as would be decimalized
angle units. In either english or metric, one would need to decimilize the
angle if any calculations are to be performed (it is awfully hard to perform
arithmetic in the DMS system -- easier to convert to decimal, and then
convert back afterwards). Radians are not metric! Radians are an angular unit
that derives from Calculus. Integration on a angular basis is usually done
based on units of "pi" which then leads to the radian as the convenient
angular measure.

The second is used as the time basis in the metric system. Now, in the
english system, I have seen energy expressed as BTU/sec, BTU/min, BTU/hr, and
HP. Simple? Consistent? Intuitive?

I bet if one would spend a couple of weeks in a metric country and bought
some fuel in liters and drove some kilometers (at a speed limit of 130
Km/hr!), set the air conditioner to about 22C, tried to diet to keep their
weight around 75 Kg, etc, the metric system would become pretty darn easy.

Just my .02

Jon Lauter
Rotary Power Marine Corporation

You forgot Watts Jon :-)

Paul Lamar

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