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Re: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?

• To: Michael Day <mikeday@y...>
• Subject: Re: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?
• From: roger.day@g...
• Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 12:23:33 +0100
• Cc: xml-dev@l..., "Roger L. Costello" <costello@m...>
• Sensitivity:

isn't kilometer a bit, well, easy? Upping the stakes a bit, you could ask
the question:

"What is blue?"

At 17/07/2003 12:14:00, Michael Day <mikeday@y...> wrote:
#  > "The length of the Yangtze River is equal to the length of 6,300,000
#  > platinum metre rods placed end to end."
#
#  Oops, didn't answer the question:
#
#  > > What is a "kilometer"?
#
#  An abstract object with a length equal to that of 1,000 metres :)

Isn't a kilometer just a label which applies to an abstract object equal to
that of a 1000 m. You could "easily" rename it "brillometer" or "mile".

IIRC, one of the Frenchmen who tried to find a *true* definition of a meter
went mad doing so. The other one seemed to realise that defining measures
is a compromise of politics, science and whatnot.

So, a kilometer could be 1000 arbitrarily defined units.

Roger.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?
    • From: "Emmanuil Batsis (Manos)" <mbatsis@n...>
  • Re: What are units-of-measure? e.g., what's a "kilometer"?
    • From: Alaric B Snell <alaric@a...>

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