Re: [xml-dev] ANN: XML Schema of measurement units

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

At 3:49 PM -0400 8/21/02, Roger L. Costello wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>
>I have created an XML Schema[1] containing simpleType definitions that
>enumerate the units for:
>
>    - temperature
>    - length
>    - weight
>    - volume
>    - area
>    - cooking
>    - speed


I think this confuses the units for mass and weight. For example, if 
I recall my high school physics correctly, kilogram is a unit of mass 
while pound is a unit of weight. If you fly to the moon your mass in 
kilograms stays the same but your weight decreases. In the metric 
system I think weight would be measured in dynes or newtons while in 
the English system mass would be measured in slugs.

Of course in day-to-day usage among non-scientists on planet Earth, 
weight and mass are used interchangeably. Thus I wonder whether it's 
even possible to come up with a canonical list of all possible units, 
when not everyone agrees all the time what the untis are measuring.
-- 

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