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Dave Ludlow · October 6th 03, 04:39 PM posted to uk.sci.weather

On 6 Oct 2003 03:48:58 -0700, (Pat Norton) wrote:

As with general conversion to the metric system, transition takes time
and effort. The hPa replaced the millibar as the legal unit of
pressure for UK aviation in 1996, but the hPa value must still be
described as 'millibars' in spoken communication between ground and
air.

So why bother changing the name at all? New names (when the unit
remains the same) are usually (if not always) arbitrary and
scientifically unecessary. Such changes invariably lead to confusion
or at least unecessary duplication for many years longer than the
initiators of such changes predicted. Confusion and duplication cost
time and money not only among scientists but in business and among the
general public.

More than two generations after you say the change was officially
made, the name Centigrade is still used quite a bit by the general
public. I rest my case.

--
Dave