In studying the unit list posted on the wiki by TheWizEd, I noticed that "°R" was referring to the Réaumur temperature scale. I must admit that I had never heard of this scale. I had assumed that "°R" meant "degrees Rankine". This was a dangerous assumption. I think that "degrees Réaumur" should be abbreviated as "°Ré". If the Rankine scale is added to the built-in units in the future, it should be abbreviated as "°Ra".

Thanks,
Will

After further inspection, I have realized that the Rankine scale is already built into Smath.

However, as I stated above, I think that the abbreviations should be distinguished more clearly. Otherwise, for some, confusion will occur. I would suggest "Ra" for Rankine and "°Ré" for degrees Réaumur. See these pages for further reading:

Rankine Scale

Reaumur Scale

What do others think?

Hello Will,

I am always considering that absolute scales (starting from zero at absolute zero) do not have grade character "°" like "K" and "R". Therefore, "°R" is quite acceptable for me as degrees Réaumur.

Regards,
Radovan

Wrote

Hello Will,

I am always considering that absolute scales (starting from zero at absolute zero) do not have grade character "°" like "K" and "R". Therefore, "°R" is quite acceptable for me as degrees Réaumur.

Regards,
Radovan

Radovan,

I understand your point.

However, I am curious to know how many people really use the Réaumur scale? Perhaps it is commonly used in Europe. If that is the case, I can understand your perspective even better. But, over on this side of the Atlantic, since the Réaumur scale is virtually unknown, using "°R" for the Réaumur scale will lead to confusion. My suggestion is to remove any possibility of confusion on both sides of the Atlantic by using more explicit abbreviations (if you read the links above, the abbreviations I am suggesting are commonly used to avoid ambiguity).

Hello, Will.

As you understand for me it will take about 2-5 seconds to change names of these Units, but you must know what problems this action will raise:

1. Users that used Rankine and Réaumur Units within SMath Studio 0.88 will be a bit shocked when their pages will not work anymore.
   
2. Mathcad uses "R" for Rankine scale as well, so saving/opening .xmcd documents will also give a problem here.

I understand that situation is not so fatal - I think there are not so much people usually uses "°R" and "R" in there worksheets, so of course I can change their names. But I need to know if I must do it for sure.

Regards.

Hello Will,

I hope that other users will comment this, but I think you are right and for the best of my knowledge the degrees Réaumur are very rare used. On the other hand, I have to admit that I am used to "K" and "R" from Mathcad and Rankine as "R" from the textbooks I use.

Regards,
Radovan

Wrote

Hello, Will.

As you understand for me it will take about 2-5 seconds to change names of these Units, but you must know what problems this action will raise:

1. Users that used Rankine and Réaumur Units within SMath Studio 0.88 will be a bit shocked when their pages will not work anymore.
   
2. Mathcad uses "R" for Rankine scale as well, so saving/opening .xmcd documents will also give a problem here.

I understand that situation is not so fatal - I think there are not so much people usually uses "°R" and "R" in there worksheets, so of course I can change their names. But I need to know if I must do it for sure.

Regards.

Andrey and Radovan,

Actually, I am fine with using "R" for Rankine (I would prefer this, of course). It is the use of "°R" for Réaumur that I think would be confusing for some people. I think "°Ré" is better.

To be honest, for myself, I doubt that I will ever use the Rankine or Réaumur temperature scales in my worksheets. But, in studying the unit list, I was fooled by the use of "°R" for the Réaumur scale, and I am sure others will make the same error in the future.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Could others please comment, especially if you use the Réaumur temperature scale now or anticipate using it in the future.

Like Will, I had never heard of Reaumur temperature scale. And being a civil engineer its not something I would typically use in any calculations I would develop.

Since Reaumur is simply a multipe of Celcius, it seems somewhat redundant. Although the same could be said of Rankine and Kelvin.

The others convertion Celcius, Farhenheit, Kelvin and Rankine are a bit more complicated. So worth the inclusion.

My 2 cents worth.

Wrote

I think "°Ré" is better.

Agree. Réaumur changed to "°Re" ("e" instead of "é" for easy typing and searching).

Thanks all for the participating in discussion and maweilian especially!

Regards.