Unit Dictionanry / measurement Scale mapping has anyone done this?

[Peter McCartney]

Even though I'm tempted to argue that all Tim has done is apply an offset to
"meters from the center of the earth" (which is ratio), I have to agree
realistically that such a mapping might be right a large proportion of the
time, but not always and it might have a negative effect of discouragine
routinely thinking about how a variant is to be used in analysis which is
what determines the scale.

A far shorter rule with about equal probablility of being right is to assume
that all positive numeric scales  are ratio and all numeric scales with
values less than 0 are treated as interval. Geospatial coordinate systems
(including MASL) are about the most common interval scales I can think of in
ecology.

Peter McCartney (peter.mccartney at asu.edu)
Center for Environmental-Studies
Arizona State University
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Bergsma [mailto:tbergsma at kbs.msu.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 5:56 AM
To: David Blankman
Cc: im at lternet.edu; Eml-Dev (E-mail)
Subject: Re: Unit Dictionanry / measurement Scale mapping has anyone done
this?


David,

I haven't done any such mapping yet.  Such a thing would be useful, but
should not be deployed unsupervised.  My favorite example is elevation
relative to sea level, which can be measured in meters but is clearly not
ratio.  

Best regards,

Tim.

> David Blankman wrote:
> 
> Have any of you done a mapping of eml unitDictionary units to 
> measurementScale type, that is, something that looks like:
> 
> unit                  measurementScale
> meter                        ratio
> celsius                       internal
> 
> If so, could you email me a file that contains those mappings.
> 
> David
> 
> --
> David E. Blankman
> Database Integration Developer
> Long Term Ecological Research Network Office
> University of New Mexico
> 801 University, SE #104
> Albuquerque, NM 87106
> (505) 272-7346 / (505) 272-7080 FAX

-- 
Tim Bergsma
LTER Information Manager
W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
Michigan State University
Hickory Corners, MI   49060
269/671-2337
tbergsma at kbs.msu.edu
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