From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Tue Feb 11 22:36:56 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Tue, 11 Feb 92 22:36 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA20479; Tue, 11 Feb 92 18:06:36 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA02434; Tue, 11 Feb 92 16:22:56 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA07019; Tue, 11 Feb 92 16:22:53 EST Message-Id: <9202112122.AA07019@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 3004; Tue, 11 Feb 92 16:21:34 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 8150; Tue, 11 Feb 92 16:20:48 EST Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1992 09:19:54 GMT+1200 Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!otago.ac.nz!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!chandley Sender: Lojban list From: Chris Handley Subject: RE: Billions X-To: LOJBAN%CUVMA.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO Colin responds to Ivan >Point taken. However, I observe that for any particular quantity, >only a certain range of values (perhaps 6 or at most 12 orders) are >commonly used. I have never heard anybody use Mm (megametres), >still less larger multiples; likewise, I have never come across mF >(millifarads), meV (milli-electron volts) Mg (megagrams) or exa-, >femto- or atto- anything. Added to which, the two most common >metric systems each take as one of their fundamental units >something which appears to be derived (centimetre in CGS, kilogram >in MKS). All in all the whole thing is a mess. > Certainly, much of the system is a mess, the propounders of the metric system had a reasonable stab at producing some reasonable sized units, and on the whole did a pretty good job. Their provision of a large number of prefixes was wise bearing in mind the possibility (realised) that some units would be too large/small for normal use. However, I have seen 1AU described as (about) 150 Mm, and amps, volts and (to a lesser extent) gauss are routinely quoted from femto to Giga, and possibly beyond. >Just my point. I know it is a thousand times bigger, in the same >way as I know that galaxies are thousands of times as far apart as >the suns within them. But it is cognitively meaningless - a >spurious precision. kolin True, unless you happen to be working in tha field, and then the difference between a Megaparsec and a Gigaparsec becomes crucial. Chris Handley chandley@otago.ac.nz Dept of Computer Science Ph (+64) 3-479-8499 University of Otago Fax (+64) 3-479-8577 Dunedin, NZ