This page describes additional standards, references, and guides published by various standards organizations that provide “official” information about the use of SI, the International System of Units. (We assume you have already read the the main reference publications page.)
Some of the publications described on this page are rather expensive; others cover specialized areas. As a result, they’re worth knowing about but are less likely to be of general interest. And note that there are hundreds of metric-related standards; here we list only a few.
To order copies of these publications, use the links provided herein; these publications are not available directly from USMA unless otherwise noted. Prices are, of course, subject to change; visit the vendors for current prices. To discover the meaning of any unrecognized acronyms, try USMA’s glossary of metric acronyms.
73 FR 28432 —
Interpretation of the International System of Units (the Metric System of Measurement) for the United States
This notice from NIST, published in the 16 May 2008 Federal Register, announces that two NIST Special Publications—SP 330 and SP 811—serve as the U.S. interpretation of SI, and refers the reader to them.
Technically speaking, this document answers the question, Where is the legal announcement of the U.S. interpretation of SI? Read the Federal Register notice for details, but note that it does not contain the interpretation; rather, it is a cross reference to the aforementioned publications, listed on our main SI publications page, which provide the actual interpretation.
ISO 80000 —
Quantities and Units
The parts of the ISO 80000 series of standards describe various quantities and units; in general, they replace corresponding parts of the older ISO 31 series.
To see the complete list of standards, search the ANSI store for ISO 80000. At this writing, the full series costs nearly $1,800.
AWS A1.1:2001 —
Metric Practice Guide for the Welding Industry
This 2001 standard is available for $60 from ANSI.
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Updated: 2014-03-15