Talk:Cast iron

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Contents 1 Plural kelvins 2 Uses 3 Huh? 4 Recycling 5 Merge Proposal 6 Cast Iron Bridges

[edit] Plural kelvins

Mr. Nygaard: Sorry about the plural thing. I imagine I seemed stubborn and rude, but in fact I didn't know how to use the site, and had no earthly idea that it had been chanced back those times. I say something is "at 300 Kelvin" or "10 Kelvin" all the time at work, but I guess differences could be expressed as "Kelvins"...I'm certain that "degrees Kelvin" is correct in both cases. Anyhow, sorry for the trouble. User:Polyparadigm

Yes, what you describe happens often enough. But that usage is clearly a failure to understand a change in the rules, not something sanctioned by any of the keepers of our standards—and in this case, it is the linguistics standards that apply, not the metrological standards beyond the fact of the basic dropping of degrees and changing the official symbol.

Back in 1967 the CGPM dropped the degrees which were used as the noun for these units, with Kelvin used as an adjective to identify the degrees, and changed the symbol from "°K" to "K".

The capitalization rules are different for nouns and adjectives in English. The names for units of measure named after people (watt, newton, volt, etc.) are not capitalized. But it is a quirk of English usage that when proper adjectives are used to identify a particular unit when the name of the unit standing alone is ambiguous, then those adjectives are capitalized. FOr example, degrees Fahrenheit", "degrees Celsius", "Gunter's chain".

Furthermore, when "Kelvin" was used as an adjective, it did not change in the plural; the "s" was added to "degrees" instead in the term degrees Kelvin. After the change, we add the "s" to the new noun.

Many technical people are less proficient in the language-related issues, and fail to understand the significance from this change from "Kelvin" as an adjective in "degrees Kelvin" to "kelvin" as a noun in "kelvins".

Another source of confusion, which applies to Wikipedia contributions by some non-native speakers of English, is the fact that the rules for spelled-out words are language-dependent, generally not determined by the keepers of the standards. This differs from the rules for the symbols for these units, which apply worldwide. Italians have their chilogramo but its symbol is "kg" as it is for everyone else, for example, but more to the point, in German "300 Kelvin" is quite proper. That's because of both different rules for capitalization (all nouns are capitalized), and different rules for the plurals of all measurements, generally using the null plural, saying "Es ist 2,5 Meter hoch" ("It is 2.5 meters high") as well. — Gene Nygaard 14:42, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I would like to say, out of 4 weeks of intensive research on combustion and related materials, this is the best written article on a complex topic I have read. Clear, concise and complete. Thank you very much for your contribution. Still need to find actual values of thermal conductivity for Cast Iron... PSU Engineering Dropout

[edit] Uses

I have expanded the article by adding a section on the uses of cast iron. However I have only carried the history of this up the the 19th century. Would some one else like to expand this to bring it up to date? Peterkingiron 23:08, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huh?

"The exceptionally high speed of sound in graphite gives cast iron a much higher thermal conductivity."

Could someone explain this? Seems to make no sense to me. User:Pedant 17:21, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, I was coming to comment on the same thing. --Belg4mit 16:57, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, this sounds like some mix up of words. I did a little researching in graphite, thermal conductivity, and speed of sound with no info regarding this. A google search also showed nothing. I think it should be something along the lines of "The speed of sound through graphite and higher thermal conductivity of graphite account for these characteristics in cast iron." --Wizard191 (talk) 01:05, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Recycling

This section is insufficently detailed/meaningful to warrant inclusion. --Belg4mit 16:57, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

If you know more, please expand it. Peterkingiron 17:27, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Proposal

Object - the section is appropriate here. I am merging the section to which the merge is proposed into a new History of Ferrous Metallurgy, but will probably refer back to this article. However, more on the modern uses of cast iron, and its use by the Chinese in antiquity would be appropriate. Peterkingiron 17:27, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cast Iron Bridges

I'm not in the know but my instincts tell me that 'iron' and 'bridges' should be lower case because the section is talking about cast iron bridges in general, which happens to also include the Iron Bridge. --Wizard191 (talk) 01:20, 10 January 2008 (UTC)