[ RadSafe ] SI Units

[Don Jordan]

In the mid 1970's my research advisor & some colleagues wrote a Physical
Chemistry text book, supposedly for college juniors but most 1st year grad
students would have had difficulty with it (Actually, it started out as a
freshman tex!).  Since SI was all the rage the authors all made a determined
effort to write the book entirely in SI.

I was asked to work out the standard correct (?) answers to the problems for
several chapters & discovered that my advisor didn't actually have a clue as
to the relative magnitudes of the 2 systems.  For example, I recall one mass
spectrometry problem that posed a magnetic field of 10,000 tesla.  Not on
this planet!

My advisor held a named professorship at a major research university and was
a member of the National Academy.  If he had trouble with conversions, then
I do worry about the guys in the control room of an NPP & tend to agree with
Sandy Perle's position:  this would be a gradual change from driving on the
right side to the left side of the road.

Since we have to change eventually, maybe we should start with the next new
plant to be built.

Don Jordan

DonJordan at ramservicesinc.com
RAM Services, Inc.
510 County Highway V
Two Rivers, WI 54241  U.S.A.

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