Desk companion

The Economist Desk Companion has been devel oped from the internationally renowned World Measurement Guide. The material has been fully revised, updated and extended to incorporate both the existing unique set of data and international changes in measurement systems, the most outstanding of which is the changeover to the metric system, based on st, which is more or less international. Of course local measurements in local areas still prevail even in the industrialised countries of the UK and the USA, but by the year 2000 the metric system will be current everywhere.

The contents list gives a clear view of the exhaustive range of information the book contains. Using that and the detailed index should enable you to look up anything you want to.

The book is in four parts.

Part I is an introduction describing the three major world measurement systems: metric (SI), British and American.

Part II gives a subject-by-subject listing of definitions, special measurements, formulae and calculations for the various subject areas, in alphabetical order.

Part III contains 75 pages of conversion tables providing instant answers to complicated sums such as net present value for a variety of assumptions, pounds-force per square inch into kilograms-force per square centimetre.

In Part IV are to be found abbreviations, rough conver sions and a valuable body of weights and measures used historically and in the countries of the world apart from the UK and USA, as well as a small section on the historic measures of the UK.