SI Units

[Cronista -at- aol -dot- com]

Mr. Hutschenreuther:
Please be aware that there are still a few of us in the U.S. who know that we 
are members of the CGPM, and were one of the signatories to the first "Treaty 
of the Meter" in Paris in 1874, and to many of the international agreements 
since then. I don't know how many countries are members now (I could easily 
look it up if it were important), but the U.S. is still a member.
The problem you observed here is that in the last decade or so, we have a new 
crop of technical writers, many of whom don't know the difference between an 
Ohm and a Mho, let alone how to abbreviate Ampere. They depend on what they 
call Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and spend most of their time formatting 
documents. Some of them (as you noticed in one of the replies) haven't even 
yet heard of the NASA disaster resulting from working with the wrong system 
of units.
Nevertheless, there are still several of us who are familiar with SI units 
and can work with them easily. We have obvious access to the Internet and can 
look up terms like "technical abbreviations" and fill our screens with 
answers. But not all Technical Writers will take the trouble (even using a 
spell-checker is an alien experience). Instead, they will ask their questions 
here, an embarrassment to many of us.
I just don't want you to think that all of the Technical Writers here are as 
"innocent" as the ones you addressed in your message.
Cordially,
Charles Jay
Phoenix Arizona