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Show APPENDIX D NOTE ON MEASUREMENTS Practically all measurements made for scientific purposes in the world today are made in metric units. The modern standard of metric measurement is the SI system of units ( Systeme International d1Unites). Details of this system are set forth in the Royal Society publication listed in the bibliography. The metric system is also the dominant one for industrial and everyday use in most of the world. Its use is steadily expanding. The United States today remains the only major country in the world devoted to the English system of measurements and even here the metric system is an officially recognized standard. England has now opted for conversion to the metric system, so the term " English system" will no longer be applicable. ( One cynical observer has noted that there are now only two systems of measurement in use medieval in the United States and metric in the rest of the world.) It is inevitable that the English ( or medieval) system of measurement eventually will be replaced by the metric one in the United States. Use of the latter is steadily expanding ( e. g.-- length of cigarettes in millimeters) in areas of public as well as scientific interest. The severe limitations of the English system are obvious try, for instance, to compute snow density in slugs per cubic foot from measured depths of snow and water content in inches. We earnestly hope that snow, weather and avalanche observations will be among the earliest to be converted entirely to the metric system in this country. In the meantime, such observations straddle the English and metric systems in schizophrenic fashion. Snow profile measurements, for instance, are firmly planted in the metric system because they are keyed to the centi. meter scale of the ram penetrometer. Snow densities are always reported in metric units by even the most ardent devotees of the English system. On the other hand, the skiing public customarily expects snow depths to be reported in inches and temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit. Because snow rangers exist in the first place to serve the interests of public safety and information, these quantities are recorded in inches and degrees Fahrenehit. A dual system is thus inevitable today. For the present we can only recommend in the strongest possible terms that as many observations as possible be made and reported in metric units. Those which are frequently disseminated to the public, such as air temperature, snow depth or wind velocity, will have for the present to continue in the English system. 76 |