> Paul
 >
 > Kelvin is not only for the French, it is for the whole world.
 >
 > Kelvin is one of the units in the International System. And luckily
 > Delta T of 1K equals a Delta T of 1 $B!k(BC.
 >
 > The funny thing is that the English speaking countries want to stick
 > with units that they themselves make complicated.
 >
 > You use decimal system for counting and you have 12 inches in a
 > foot, so
 > you have 60 inches in 5 feet. The first digit changes when you
 > put a
 > zero behind it to find the equivalent. Quite practical for
 > multiplications and breaking up...
 > 3 feet in a yard, what can you do with that? Why do you need a
 > yard? I
 > happen to know what a furlong is but do you as English/Americans ever
 > use it?
 > Did any anglosaxon engineer come up with foot, foot, foot, foot,
 > afoot, foot, foot, foot units? Or am I inventing these units here?
 >
 > Your English miles are different from sea miles.
 > Your English gallons are different from American gallons.
 >
 > We are in the car business and we talk about fuel economy. On the
 > mainland Europe we don't know what an author means when he uses mpg
 > (miles per gallon). We have to try to find out from which
 > country the
 > magazine comes and then we have to look up with a unit
 > converter. Does
 > an American engineer understand British English units? How do
 > Americansand English engineers ever work together without making
 > mistakes?
 > What is a psi (English or American)? Same problem. Do you have
 > to check
 > on the back of your pressure gauge what pounds are meant to make sure
 > you don't blow the kettle up?
 >
 > Thank god we all have the same understanding of RPM. It would have
 > ruined many engines if we hadn't.
 >
 > When I read mpg it means m/g or miles/gallon
 > When I read Nm it means Newton meter
 > When I read cfm it means cubic feet per minute. Why not write
 > that as
 > cf/m or as cfpm?
 >
 > Why do you complicate life? Why do you complicate engineering?
 > Engineering can be some much simpler with the International
 > System O:-)
 >
 > Degrees Celsius (Centigrades) are 0 for freezing of water and
 > 100 for
 > boiling of water, the most common liquid around us.
 > Why bother about alcohol boiling point?
 >
 > The beauty of the International System is that everybody
 > understands it.
 > Its units are explicit.
 > Power of electric motors in kW is clear for all. Even for Americans.
 > Yes, Paul why do Americans use International System here then?
 > Why not
 > in BTU/second? I guess Nicola Tesla had a hand in this. And of
 > course he
 > was from mainland Europe!
 >
 > The International system not only has explicit units but also
 > uses the
 > decimal system so moving up one or more places in the scale of units
 > simply moves the comma.
 > You don't do that with inches, feet, yards etc... You gave the example
 > in your email : Namely 11000 inches per second or 917 feet
 > per second. How did you do that? Mental calculus? Or did you
 > need a
 > slide ruler?
 >
 > You know there are 10 kinds of people: Those who understand
 > International System and those who don't :-)
 >
 > I may be joking about this but it truly is complicated to need
 > to look
 > for indications of the origin of scientifical writing for
 > understanding true values.
 >
 >
 > Best regards from European mainland where International system
 > rules. HA!
 >
 > Randolph
 >
 >
 > Yes of course. I was half joking. On the other hand Newton was a Brit.
 > Pounds per square inch is like dollars per square inch. Beats
 > the heck out of Pascals.
 >
 > I am relying on you Randolph to translate what I write into
 > French :)
 >
 > Paul Lamar

Well Paul pardon me my French  :))  but Canadians have changed to the
French/International/Metric system 20 years ago.  Now for our cars we
use this mesure 5 liters per 100 kilometers versus M/Gal.  A bit like 11
gal per hour used for an aircraft.

Randolph is right.  Thank you!

Marc Joseph

Paul,

Why doesn't this newsletter join the 21st century and go metric?   It
seems difficult, but I have found it easy and convenient.  It  won't
cost a pound of flesh, as we inch forward, walking a mile in
standardized shoes.

Doug in Japan

Well here in the U.S. where most of our subscribers live we still
use inches and pounds of weight. BTW I was on a UK highway recently
and the Britts still use yards on the road signs.

BTW A Pascal is a ridicules unit as it says nothing about what it is.
psi on the other hand says everything about what it is.
Could you replace it by Kg/m^2, g/cm^2, milligram/micrometer^2, etc.,
etc., etc....?

You see where I am going with this :)

Paul Lamar