value of GRAD angle mode, thought experiment

[john gustaf stebbins]

(03-10-2023 06:18 PM)brouhaha Wrote:  In elementary school in the US in the early 1970s, they taught us metric units and prefixes, and told us the US was going to switch to metric. I'm annoyed that we haven't.

Actually, and this may be more annoying, we (US) did switch to metric. All those "customary units" are now officially defined in SI units, so everyone is using metric whether they know it or not.

I've been working on a project to update lead safety rules. When surface contamination is measured for environmental purposes, the most common unit is the grotesque, mixed systems, unit ug/ft^2 (microgram per square foot). For occupational safety the common unit is at least all metric, but not really a unit, ug/100 cm^2 (micrograms per 100 square centimeters). I've used a proper unit, ug/dm^2 (micrograms per square decimeter), following NIST guidelines. This gets a fair amount comment because people want what they are familiar with. When they complain too much I often point out that slugs/ha actually gives relevant numbers in a convenient range. Though that could add additional confusion with lead based projectiles or unhoused snails of the Pacific Northwest.