Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site dg_rtp.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw From: throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: multiplier legend on dials & meters Message-ID: <65@dg_rtp.UUCP> Date: Mon, 30-Dec-85 14:14:26 EST Article-I.D.: dg_rtp.65 Posted: Mon Dec 30 14:14:26 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 1-Jan-86 00:53:48 EST References: <1471@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <1264@sdcsvax.UUCP> Lines: 35 [ The discussion so far: Mitch Marks (sphinx!mmar) wonders why legends on meters are, for example "RPM X 1000" rather than "RPM / 1000", since to get to a meter reading from RPM, you divide, not multiply. Darrell Long (darrell@sdcsvax) conjectures that most folks don't think like mathematicians, and so the proposed that an "RPM / 1000" legend would confuse them. ] Use of "/" is indeed confusing, but not entirely because people don't think like mathematicians. The legend is giving the units in which the dial is marked, *not* a procedure for getting from RPM to meter reading. Since it is marked in thousands of RPM, it seems quite straightforward to have the legend be "RPM X 1000". So "X" is formally correct. Division is indeed how to get from RPM to a meter reading, but most folks want to go from a meter reading to RPM. Thus, most folks feel confusion when division is used... *multiplication* is how you get from where you are (meter reading in "hand") to where you want to be (current RPM in "hand"). So "X" is procedurally correct (even if notationally perverse when used procedurally). To get a procedural legend, the notation might be changed to "X 1000 -> RPM", or some such, but I repeat that the legend is *not* *procedural*, and I suspect that taking it to be procedural is the source of the original question. Note also that Mark's suggestion of "1000 RPM" as the legend is *identical* in meaning to the current "RPM X 1000". A breifer (and thus maybe better) legend might be "KRPM" (or "K RPM"), but I suppose all the overly-compuliterate would then think the dial was marked in units of 1024 RPM... -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC !mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw