The end of the american empire

[Torsten]

So centi, and deci are just in between terms used by lay people.

do you get out of australia much?

I have lots of german science books that use cm. Admittedly this is not as common in maths, physics, etc. For anyone familar with the system, the number of zeros don't have to come in sets of 3. If the number is given in cm then you only have 2 in the first set, etc.

But glad you mention the maths angle. How to you explain the unjustified increase in accuracy? how do you distinguish between an estimated 900mm and an accurately measured 900mm? I gues you would have to use 0.9m for the former then. But most people don't which makes it all wrong.

Scientists and engineers prefer the units separated by 3 log units, ie the main named ones. I hate centimetres and wouldn't even dream of using 'deci'.

deciliter is a unit often used in chemistry and biology. I know cos at uni folks would always ask me to convert it

There's the potential for confusion with 'deca' which is 10^1.

true, but they are usually the same people who confuse milli and micro too.

[Auxin]

how do you distinguish between an estimated 900mm and an accurately measured 900mm? I gues you would have to use 0.9m for the former then. But most people don't which makes it all wrong.

the alt 0177 'plus or minus' key on the keypad. 900mm ±5 or 900mm ±50, etc.

But I'm with you, cm is indicated there... well in the former at least, 0.9m would be best for 900mm ±50

Best to minimize the number of uncertain zeros

Over here when metric is used its mostly:

µm (sciences only), mm, cm, m, (no km)

µl (sciences only), ml, L (dl seems only to be commonly used in hematology, nowhere else that I've seen)

µg (sciences only), mg, g, kg (kg is rare outside science, mg is the most commonly cared about metric mass measure in the US because its used for all drugs & vitamins)