Using standardized SI prefixes

[Laurent]

Scott James Remnant a écrit :
> On Tue, 2007-06-12 at 13:01 +0200, Christof Krüger wrote:
> 
>> Let me give you an example from the real world:
>> There was a bridge to build over the river Rhine connecting Switzerland
>> and Germany. You have to know that sea levels are defined differently in
>> both countries so if you plan to build a bridge you have to take it into
>> account. Well, the engineers tried to, but they've substracted instead
>> of adding (or vice versa) and so they had to lower the road 54cm on the
>> other side to match the bridge. Read here:
>> http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/thieme/archives/005928.html
>> This would not have happened if they had the same reference point for
>> the sea level. I'm convinced that in the fast-paced computer world such
>> a unification should be possible.
>>
> This is a strong advocation for using powers of ten everywhere, and
> abolishing the use of powers of two multiples altogether, no?

    I think that Christof advocates for using Kilo=10^3 everywhere and 
for giving another name for 2^10. It is the only point of the whole 
discussion.
    As physicist, I know that a coherent usage of units across every 
measurable quantities is an invaluable help to avoid mistakes. I do not 
know exactly how (I am not specialist) but I have a strong feeling that 
the lack of coherence «kilo=2^10» between informatics and the rest of 
the world will produce problems somewhere.


best,
Laurent