Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 18:26:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199804162226.SAA18303@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Lionel Bonnetier Sender: Lojban list From: Lionel Bonnetier Subject: [lojban] On measure units X-To: Lojban ML To: John Cowan X-UIDL: 5a360931ab669c9c8d01e75a8ddfd1aa Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 X-From-Space-Date: Wed Apr 22 12:12:28 1998 X-From-Space-Address: - Veijo Vilva wrote: > Actually, this term, 'sekuntimetri' (Finnish), can be found in > encyclopedias and is also used in the Scandinavian languages > ('sekundmeter' in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish). It is quite > commonly used in weather forecasts on the radio. (...) > nidytre x1 is x2 in meters per second in direction x3 > and, generalizing, > nidnidytre x1 is x2 in meters per second per second in direction x3 That's a nice short expression. But it may lead to problems of clarity, since we have to deal not only with unit/unit, but also unit*unit magnitutes: For instance kWh, which means kW*h: a quantity of energy: (energy / time) * time == energy (1 W is 1 J/s) not kW/h: the speed a power changes: (energy / time) / time == energy / time^2 But since the unit*unit expressions are far less frequent than unit/unit, we could state any unit1-unit2 lujvo to mean unit2 / unit1, and add an explicit multiplication element for the unit*unit lujvo's. Besides, a kilowatt-hour lujvo would be hardly misinterpreted, since h/kW makes very little sense in today's science. co'o mi'e lionel