Thread: Millimetres vs Millimeters

Originally Posted by Eli

"The Pentavrate! The Kennedy's, The Rothschilds, The Rockefeller's, The Pope, AND Colonel Saunders before he went tits up"
-So I Married An Axe Murderer

What secret comittee be this? International Comittee for official metal naming?

WWW.IUPAC.ORG

Originally Posted by Eli

Were you on it when Alumium was renamed?

No, I wasn't but we research, collect and monitor the history of these sorts of things - our archive in the US is extensive and very interesting for those that are chemically inclined. Our committee/commission has been going for more than 100 years - I joined 16 years ago and currently we're working with IUPAP on naming element number 112. We are part of a larger group of scientists that define terms and evaluate and decide on the accepted values of the many constants used in physical science - sort of like scientific housekeeping!

See what you started Blocklayer three pages of drivel and you still haven't got a decent or sensible answer to your quandary.

Originally Posted by Barry_White

See what you started Blocklayer three pages of drivel and you still haven't got a decent or sensible answer to your quandary.

Yeah, it sort of ended up in chemistry.
But hey, I'm starting to understand what happened to the Mars Orbiter http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

From whats been said in this thread it doesn't look like their next attempt is gunna work either.

Does the Chinese Space Program use Imperial?

Yeah, And on a similar vane, what about the people who describe the measurements of their projects in centimetres!!or is it centimeters?
To me centremetres is a unit of measure used by dress makers!!, we use Millimetres.

Its like trained amateur radio operators using the type of CB jargon on the Amateur Bands like "Roger That" and "Back" when they really mean "Over" or "Go Ahead"

Geeeez!!!

Having been exposed to both Australian and American English (?) my daughter is fully bi-lingual.

To somewhat paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, "England and America (and Australia) are two (three) countries separated by a common language.

Originally Posted by Wayne Johnson

Yeah, And on a similar vane, what about the people who describe the measurements of their projects in centimetres!!or is it centimeters?
To me centremetres is a unit of measure used by dress makers!!, we use Millimetres.

I strike those centim-eaters all the time, they're the bigger cousins of the millim - eaters, you know when you cut a piece of wood and it just that little bit shorter than you wanted it to be?

Omigod! Here we go again. The spelling nazis are alive and well. Who cares how it's spelled (or spelt, if you must), as long as the meaning is clear? If an infant says, "Me gotta poo," you know what you have to do.

Just my guess: The "aluminium" ending conforms to all other metal element names, e.g. sodium, potassium, and such; but "aluminium" has 5 syllables, whereas all other elements except some of the rare earths and actinium series have a maximum of 4 syllables. Hence the usage of "aluminum" for more convenient pronunciation.

True story regarding local usages: A few years ago, one of our local news readers on the tube had two items to report; one occurred on "LA-fay-ETTE" street in Tallahassee; the other occurred in nearby "la-FAY-ette" county. Same news reader, same program(me), both items reported back-to-back IIRC. I expect the same thing would apply to items from KY-ro Egypt and KAY-ro Georgia.

[BTW, Merry Christmas to y'all.]

Joe

I have to agree that a millimetre is a unit of measure and a millimeter could be a measuring instrument but the convention doesnt fit because to my knoweledge the only meter that is named after its unit of measurement is the voltmeter and that is only because the electrical force measured is refered to similarly to the units of measure....... ammeter doesnt quite make it.

The voltmeter is an aberation it real should be called a potentiometer.... but that is another thing...... that too is a miss named aberation.... probly named by americans

dose this qulaify as drivel

As to the quality of spoken english..... the best spoken english I have ever heard came out of the mouth of an old missionary educated islander lady I met fishing up north...... 30 seconds later see was speaking fluent and broad pidgeon......seems she is in the habit of turning on the "english" for white fellas


cheers

Originally Posted by soundman

I have to agree that a millimetre is a unit of measure and a millimeter could be a measuring instrument but the convention doesnt fit because to my knoweledge the only meter that is named after its unit of measurement is the voltmeter and that is only because the electrical force measured is refered to similarly to the units of measure....... ammeter doesnt quite make it.

The voltmeter is an aberation it real should be called a potentiometer.... but that is another thing...... that too is a miss named aberation.... probly named by americans

dose this qulaify as drivel

watt meter is that again

cheers

How about speedometer, altimeter and parking meter

Originally Posted by bsrlee

I have noticed, in several US based publications, the loss of the word 'of'. The expression 'a couple of screws' has mutated into 'a couple screws'. Very jarring to someone used to getting a full compliment of words in their sentences - is this some sort of 'diet' writing?

Actually I've noticed some things similar when using the MS spelling and grammar checker. So not only is Uncle Bill corrupting our computers, he is also mucking up our language.

To Joe Greiner,
There is a reason for being accurate in spelling and that is that misspelling can totally alter meaning.

Often, and it occurs on this forum, someone says "I can't bare it" I'm rather glad they cannot.
On television here an ad for a program promised Grizzly Murders. That was something I couldn't bear.

In simplifying spelling I know Americans use nite instead of night, following Webster's Dictionary. But consider the difference between "rite" and "right"

Hope you see my point.

Jerry

Everybody is entitled to my opinion

Originally Posted by cranbrook2

We Canadians don,t use millimetres , way too many numbers for us, we use something easy like inches and feet.

There are a few other words that are a little different , you say rubbish we say garbage , you say bin we say can , You say timber we say wood ,
you say G,day we say what's up bro

Merry Christmas everyone

An old cabinet maker once told me that wood is for burning ,timber is for making furniture and other items from.
Some people turn timber into wood.

Kev

Originally Posted by jerryc

In simplifying spelling I know Americans use nite instead of night, following Webster's Dictionary.

What can I say... Yes, we do have our fair share of I/D ten ts. Most are 'Copy Writers' that write advertisements or create the names of products. e.g. Nite Light (puke) or Nite Lite (double puke)

I can recall spelling night as nite, only once. My teacher (6th grade I think) hit me on the knuckles with a ruler. (A third metre stick in OZ terms. ) I tried the Copy Writer excuse that there wasn't enough room on the line and promptly had the knuckles on the other hand hit.

Originally Posted by Woodlee

An old cabinet maker once told me that wood is for burning ,timber is for making furniture and other items from.
Some people turn timber into wood.

Kev

That does make a lot of sense
I better get some more wood then to keep my house heated for the winter . I have a lot of birdhouse timber in the barn but i don,t want to burn that .