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From: darrell@sdcsvax.UUCP (Darrell Long)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: multiplier legend on dials & meters
Message-ID: <1264@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Dec-85 22:10:36 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.1264
Posted: Fri Dec 27 22:10:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 23:21:27 EST
References: <1471@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Reply-To: darrell@sdcsvax.UUCP (Darrell Long)
Organization: EECS Dept. U.C. San Diego
Lines: 34

In article <1471@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) writes:
>
>
>Can anyone explain the rationale for the explanatory legend that goes on a 
>dial or meter when the actual numbers shown represent some fixed multiple 
>of a standard unit?  It seems to me that they often have it exactly 
>The alternative I seem to be supporting above is that the notation should 
>be instead
>
>             RPM / 1000
>
>
>which works quite differently from RPM X 1000.  The legend 1000 RPM would 
>mean "this dial shows the rotational speed of the engine, measured in units 
>of 1000 RPM".
> 
>Okay, okay, so everybody does it that way.  But will you explain clearly 
>where I've gone wrong, if they're right?
>
>-- 
>
>            -- Mitch Marks @ UChicago 
>               ...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmar

Most people aren't clever enough to divide, or alternatively they do not think
like mathematicians.  I have asked a few people, and the notation that you
suggest confuses them.
-- 
Darrell Long
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of California, San Diego

UUCP: sdcsvax!darrell
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