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Perhaps this org merits its own article, and a disambig link from this article?
Ian Cairns 21:39, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Obsolete or not?
On 2 Feb, I changed the first sentence to say that the CGS system is "obsolete". This was reverted four days later. However, I think it is important to put the dyne / CGS into perspective, so now I changed "cgs" to "cgs, a predecessor of the modern SI". Hope that variant will become consensus.
Apart from that, the edit that reverted my edit had this comment:
CGS units are still widely used in astronomy, astrophysics and petrophysics (Oil&Gas Industry) (they are not obsolete)
From what I'm reading on the CGS page, "widely used" is an overstatement--it's more like "occasionally encountered". So in order to provide context for further edits, here are some quotes from the
CGS article:
"The centimeter-gram-second system [...] was replaced by the MKS"
"the CGS system never gained wide general use outside the field of electrodynamics and was gradually superseded internationally"
"CGS units are still occasionally encountered in older technical literature, especially in the United States in the fields of electrodynamics and astronomy".
Well, presumably you've seen the commentary on the talk page over at
CGS as well, but I'm a graduate student in physics at the moment, and I would say based on my experience that CGS is definitely not obsolete. My classes use CGS almost exclusively; moreover, so does my research -- it's still (as far as I can tell) the standard for describing things like surface tension. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur before my time ;-)
Chalkdusted11:50, 7 May 2007 (UTC)reply
You're right, I just came to this article because one paper I'm reading on surface tension uses dyne/cm, and I needed to know what does that mean. Maybe a better replacement could be that "CGS is obsolete except for a few countries and fields of science" — and keep the "fields of science" as a sign of good will to those countries. Also, according to wikipedia on SI, that didn't evolve from CGS as the alternative seems to implicate. —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
200.161.121.122 (
talk)
18:07, 17 September 2008 (UTC)reply
You'll find that the existence of international standards does not necessarily translate to the fields of study themselves, but rather act as just that: a means by which the subject matter is translatable across all disciplines. Classical standards are generally in practice because they allow the resident experts in those fields to continue advancing the study of the material without breaking the fluid connection with the field's history, which is essential in any field of study. -MVD — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
MichaelVernonDavis (
talk •
contribs)
10:16, 9 October 2011 (UTC)reply