"Jukka K. Korpela" wrote in message
. ..
"Julian Scarfe" wrote:

I forgot to mention in my response, BTW, that the same number of
digits *is* required.

It depends on the quantities. I was referring to the most common
quantities that people see expressed. When tagging isobars in weather
maps, the trailing zero is just a nuisance. And when more accuracy is
needed, it is natural to accept that fractions might be needed.

But I think you forget where you came into this, Jukka. The thread is
entitled "units of measurement on altimeters". The quantities that need to
be expressed are in the approximate range of 970 to 1040 hPa, with a
precision of 1 hPa. The hPa is the right unit for that job.

Your choice is between 1013 hPa or
101.3 kPa.

You just gave one more reason to favor kPa. The numeric value 1013 is
not in the recommended range, and it raises the question of a thousands
separator, which is language dependent, so that some cultures would use
1 013 (and would need a no-break space to prevent undesired line
breaks, and an en space to avoid too wide a gap, and cannot get both)
while some would use 1'013 or 1.013 or 1,013. Situations where the
quantity will be taken as a thousand times too small would be quite
rare, but the damage could be serious, so why take the risk.

In context, the need for a thousands separator is not great, is it?

Julian