Re:Just how long is a meter?
Re:Just how long is a meter?
- Subject: Re:Just how long is a meter?
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:09:32 -0500
In a recent posting to Applescript-users, I erroneously stated that Applescript
had the wrong conversion factor for the inch. I was wrong; Chris Nebel set me
straight.
>
NIST disagrees with you, at least according to
>
<http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/230/235/appxc/appxc.htm>. They specify that
>
an inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters, which gives a meter of (approximately)
>
39.3700787 inches. I can't get the text of IEEE or ISO specs online -- they
seem to want money for them. Can you provide references for the 39.37-inch
meter?
I misinterpreted my reference, which was the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics, 73rd edition. They give 2.54 E-02 exactly as the conversion from
inches to meters. I was reading the footnote concerning the foot: "The US
Metric Law of 1866 gave the relationship, 1 meter equals 39.37 inches." But
further, they discuss, in the context of the yard, its change in 1959 to match
international usage, as 0.9144 meters exactly. This corresponds to an inch of
25.4 mm exactly.
So I was right the year I was born, and wrong ever since.
--
Scott Norton Phone: +1-703-299-1656
DTI Associates, Inc. Fax: +1-703-706-0476
2920 South Glebe Road Internet: email@hidden
Arlington, VA 22206-2768 or email@hidden