Editing Encyclopedia:Measurements Debate (section)

==km/h mi/h==
: I've lately been changing all occurrences of "kph" Google found to the correct "km/h" and got carried away to also change "mph" to "mi/h" in many places, because it just makes sense when mile is abbreviated "mi" and I had already seen it elsewhere. However that's probably a little bit confusing for average US-Americans and the like (who already complained), as would be using "pd" instead of "lb". So I think we should have a definitive guide for which abbreviation to use, or whether to abbreviate units at all in full sentences. Also whether to put a space between number and unit and when the number should be written in letters.
: JFTR: I'm fascinated by the imperial system(s) and constantly wonder how anyone can remember all those different conversion factors. -- [[User:Crissov|Crissov]] 14:36, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

:: While 'mi/h' is certainly logical and sensible, to my knowledge it has never been used.  Since understandable beats logical in my opinion when it comes to a project like this, we should keep 'mph' as the abbreviation for miles per hour.  Efforts would be better spent on making sure all these also have SI equivalents listed. --[[User:Morven|Morven]] 23:39, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

::: I don't like 'mi/h', because it ''looks'' like [[SI]] but isn't. Whenever I see this kind of thing I can't help thinking 'm = metres -- ''no problem''; but i = ??????'. The same goes for 'mi²', which seems to be cropping up more and more frequently. Is this really used in the US? Or is it, as I suspect, a bastard form? Where 'traditional' units are being used, I think it adds to clarity if the traditional abbreviations, too, are used: mph, sq. mi., etc. -- [[User:Picapica|Picapica]] 15:40, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

::::In my experience, 'mi²' is '''never''' used in America. If clarity were my goal, I'd always use 'square miles' as anything that looks like, for example, 'seven miles squared' leaves my wondering if I should square the number. :-) -- [[User:Atlant|Atlant]] 12:05, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

:: The most important question IMHO is why we would be using miles at all? And the answer has to be, "To make this (international) project more accessible to Americans." So we use what Americans are used to dealing with: "mph". Thus: "80 km/h (50 mph)". Similarly, I would avoid "pd" in favor of "lb", since the point is not to conform to some international pound standard, but to make Wikipedia more accessible to people who don't use international standards (i.e., Americans). Thus: "30 kg (66 lb)".

::::: No need to change "mph" to "mi/h": the Imperial/US system isn't supposed to make sense.  If these archaic measures are given at all, use their archaic abbreviations. [[User:Jimp|Jimp]] 12Jun05

::::::One thing, British people use the term mph, and anyone the term mi/h will get funny looks as mi '''isn't''' the official symbol for miles in the United Kingdom.[[User:159753|159753]] 13:22, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

:::::The speedometers of most cars sold here in Canada show km/h and MPH while some models of VW show km/h only. Peter Horn 14:30, 1 September 2006 (UTC)