Template talk:Convert/doc

This starts with "This template can be used to show measurement quantities as primary and converted secondary units.." yet most of the templates I see are things like in-to-cm, treating the US units as "primary" and the metric system that more-or-less everyone else use as "secondary". I'd say that is backwards.

An encyclopedia written for an international audience should use the international standard units wherever possible. Sometimes translations should be provided for American readers, and some topics need particular units — acres and sections for North American farms, mu,li and jing for some Chinese topics, troy ounces for precious metals, points for typography, dots per inch for printers, ... — but otherwise I'd say we should use metric units everywhere.

Here's an example of what I consider correct use of units, from Wikitravel [1]:

Top speed on some of the recently built lines, like Beijing-Tianjin, is 350 km/h (nearly 220 mph). Older major lines, like Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou, top out at 250 km/h (150 mph). Other lines are limited to 160 or 200 km/h (about 100 or 125 mph).

To me the only question there is whether to delete "(about 100 or 125 mph)" as unnecessary. I'd say yes, but there's room for debate. Sandy Harris 10:18, 15 June 2009 (UTC)