Guide for the use of the International System of Units (SI)
E Ambler Thompson, E Ambler Thompson, Barry N. Taylor · 2008
iii Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)It is quite natural for NIST to publish documents on the use of the SI.First, NIST coordinates the Federal Government policy on the conversion to the SI by Federal agencies and on the use of the SI by U.S. industry and the public.Second, NIST provides official U.S. representation in the various international bodies established by the Meter Convention (Convention du Mètre, often called the Treaty of the Meter in the United States), which was signed in Paris in 1875 by seventeen countries, including the United States (51 countries are now members of the Convention).One body created by the Meter Convention is the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM, Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures), a formal diplomatic organization.**The International System was in fact established by the 11th CGPM in 1960, and it is the responsibility of the CGPM to ensure that the SI is widely disseminated and that it reflects the latest advances in science and technology.This 2008 edition of the Guide corrects a small number of misprints in the 1995 edition, incorporates the modifications made to the SI by the CGPM and CIPM in the last 13 years, and updates the bibliography.Some minor changes in format have also been made in an attempt to improve the ease of use of the Guide.In keeping with U.S. and International practice (see Sec. C.2), this Guide uses the dot on the line as the decimal marker.In addition this Guide utilizes the American spellings "meter," "liter," and "deka" rather than "metre," "litre," and "deca," and the name "metric ton" rather than "tonne."