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From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Re: metric system
Message-ID: <965@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 21:40:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: bsu-cs.965
Posted: Tue Aug 11 21:40:51 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Aug-87 01:34:44 EDT
References: <238@etn-rad.UUCP> <4808@utah-cs.UUCP> <3657@ecsvax.UUCP> <452@ambush.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Distribution: sci.misc
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 14

In article <452@ambush.UUCP> kimcm@ambush.UUCP (Kim Chr. Madsen) writes:
>0 degrees K - Everything Freezes (Absolute Zero)

A common error in terminlogy.  "0 degrees K" is incorrect.  "0 K" or 
"0 kelvin" is correct.  Also occasionally acceptable is "0 degrees
absolute".

While the Celsius and Farenheit scales use arbitrarily-chosen zero
points, the kelvin *does* have a natural zero because it is measuring
something proportional to kinetic energy.  Hence adding "degrees" is
superfluous--we are measuring not just differences, but something
absolute.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  {ihnp4,seismo}!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi