Noticed two instances where the author of written piece mixes the two systems. In an article on the BBC Internet in English, a correspondent in California talking about the diminishing size of European glaciers expressed the area as being XX sq km. I am familiar with square miles, and km2 but I have never seen it written as sq km.
J’ai remarqué récemment deux cas ou deux textes avaient mélangé les deux systèmes. Dans un article en anglais sur le site Internet de la BBC, le journaliste écrivait de Californie que les glaciers d’Europe disparaissaient et exprima leur superficie en km ca. Je connais l’abréviation po.ca. et milles ca. mais jamais km carrés.
Later on, in a totally different context, in a Big Box hardware store, I saw the price of ceiling tiles being expressed in ft2. Again, sq. ft. is common, but I had never seen the expression ft squared.
Plus tard, dans un contexte différent, dans une quincaillerie grande surface, j’ai trouvé une étiquette de panneaux de plafond dont le prix était exprimé en pi.2. J’ai vu très souvent pi.ca., mais jamais pi. à la puissance deux.
Is this ignorance or neglect? Est-ce un signe d’ignorance ou de je m’enfoutisme?
2 comments:
This is great article. Can you post the BBC link?
I think it is both - kids in school learn metric system and later on they have to re-learn it all "in real life", where mostly Imperial system is still in use. This creates a lot of confusion (just like that satellite a while ago - do not remember the details - when they entered miles instead of kilometers (or other way around). An truly Imperial mess, so to say...
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