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Consistency and Convenience in the Choice of Units for Agricultural Science†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

J. L. Monteith
J. L. Monteith
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leics LE12 5RD, England
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Summary

The Système International d'Unités (SI) provides a consistent and coherent set of units for specifying the magnitude of physical quantities. Use of SI is recommended by most scientific journals and in many, including Experimental Agriculture, it is now mandatory. Multiples and sub-multiples of units should be chosen to minimize the repetition of zeros before or after the decimal point. Several units related to SI (e.g. tonne and hectare) are convenient in speech as well as in writing but should be avoided in analysis to minimize the risk of numerical errors. Units common in agricultural science are discussed with special reference to the need for compromise between consistency and convenience.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 105 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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Footnotes

†

Invited contribution.

References

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