SI units!

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

1 Gy = 1 J/kg:
Is it correct that all U.S. scientists immediately know what 1 rad is in 
calories per ounce or pound? I doubt it.

How come that most U.S. radiation researchers I met use SI units? Are these 
people not representative for the group "radiation professionals"? I can 
understand some of the economic arguments (the car industry probably likes 
cubic inches) but why not take it successively - iron out the worst stuff 
first (I had to find a connecting plug with a 37/64 inch measurment once! 
First we measured it in millimeter fractions (this was in the U.S.) with 
some instrument - then translated it. A prime divided by 2E6.). The public 
and the media is probably no problem because they always need a new 
reference number (whatever the unit is) whenever there is a radiation story 
- and then they forget the units "in between" - and the radiation folks get 
repetition all the time...

Say that the half a gallon of soft drinks would be sold as 2 liter packages 
instead of the approx. 1.85 liters. Most people wouldn't care and they would 
soon get the idea about "one liter". There would of course be costs in the 
production of new packages etc but in the longer run the course would be 
towards an easier system. I know that the U.S. units are not impossible - I 
have used many of them a lot but they are not very convenient (I am still 
uncertain about the number of ounces to the pound - probably 16 - and if the 
ounce is about 28 grams or 31 grams. (1 kg = 1000 g)).

I don't think that all this is something to fight about (as some previous 
debaters indicated) - but more to try to meet in a successive way - if some 
of the most awkward units/fractions were removed soon - the rest would go 
much easier. Take the ounces or gallons alone! Not only are they far from SI 
units - there are also several different kinds - a perfect situation for 
causing confusion. Try comparison of energy consumption in various countries 
- for Canada, U.S., and Europe as an excercise - cubic feet (number of cubic 
inches to the cubic foot?), BTU, etc, etc!. It was much worse in the slide 
rule days but that situation is history with todays power and precision in 
calculations.

Just my own ideas...  Bjorn Cedervall,  bcradsafers@hotmail.com

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