Re: Do Eskimos count like New Guineans?

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Evan wrote on Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:57:07 -0800:

??>> I do know about the similarly pronounced unit of
??>> non-metric length, but I don't remember ever hearing it
??>> actually used. I would never interpret a spoken "280 mils
??>> of milk" in the way that Evan describes.

EK> The only place it's typically used is in describing the
EK> thickness of things like plastic bags and tarps. Let's see, a
EK> 2 mil bag would be 0.0508 mm. How would that be advertised?
EK> 50 microns?

Until I retired, I was a scientist, a chemist in fact, and almost
always verbalized ml as /milz/. (The i should be upper case but
unfortunately, capital I and lower case l are identical in common
fonts used on the 'net so I have used lower case i.) When I was
young, I did sometimes use the less precise term cc. I was aware
that mil was some sort of engineering measurement but I never really
knew what it was nor had occasion to use it but I suppose Evan's
experience might be different.

I first became aware of the unit when I started seriously collecting
comic books and began purchasing 2 mil bags and 3 mil mylar sleeves to
store them. But I don't think I ever had any real notion of how that
converted to bigger units. It was just a relative measure of
thickness.

I had thought that things like zip-loc bags and aluminum foil gave
their thickness in mils, but as far as I can tell, the boxes don't
bother giving thickness at all. I'm also sure I've bought plastic
dropcloths spec'd in mils, but I don't seem to have any packages lying
around. The only things I have that give thickness are garbage bags,
and the two boxes I have say

.5 mil (12.7 µm)
.9 mil. (23 µm)

(Yes, that's right. The thicker ones have a period after the unit.)

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |"Algebra? But that's far too
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |difficult for seven-year-olds!"
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |
|"Yes, but I didn't tell them that
kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxxx |and so far they haven't found out,"
(650)857-7572 |said Susan.

http://www.kirshenbaum.net/


.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Do Eskimos count like New Guineans?
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  • Re: Do Eskimos count like New Guineans?
    ... things like plastic bags and tarps. ... a 2 mil bag would be ... What are the dimensions of GLAD Trash Bags? ...
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