On Monday 22 March 2004 15:04, Jimmy Wales wrote:
In the tables for [[Montana]] (a state in the United States) and [[Germany]] (the country in Europe), we learn that Montana is 381,156 km^2 and Germany 357,022 km^2. To Americans such as myself, these numbers have no intuitive meaning. I know via conversion factors how long a kilometer is, if I stop to think about it, but still the numbers mean nothing.
This bugs me, but I consider that particular argument to have been lost a long time ago, and with good reason I suppose. (Although I think in the case of km^2, it would be sensible to express both numbers and not omit mi^2.)
It is possible to change the software in such a way that, for example, {{num:km2:357022}} would render as 357,022 km<sup>2</sup> for users and visitors from Europe and as whichever mi<sup>2</sup> for users and visitors from the US.