著者

三井 隆弘 重松 公司

出版者

一般社団法人 日本家政学会

雑誌

日本家政学会誌 (ISSN:09135227)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.63, no.3, pp.147-150, 2012-03-15 (Released:2013-10-03)

参考文献数

18

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The joule (J) has been the only scientific unit of energy included in the International System of Units(SI) since the 1950s; nevertheless, the calorie (cal) is still commonly used as a unit of energy in the field of nutrition and related areas. The unit used in any particular academic paper depends on the editorial policy of the publishing journal, so there is a great deal of inconsistency among academic papers in this field. We investigated in the present study the policy on energy units in 20 noted international journals and consider the reasons for each journal’s policy. We identified five types of journal policy after contacting the journals and looking up ‘energy intake’ in PubMed. Two journals have exclusively adopted kJ (MJ), three require kJ but also permit authors to provide kcal in parentheses where appropriate, one allows the use of kcal but also requires kJ in parentheses when kcal is used, twelve allow both kcal and kJ, and two have exclusively adopted kcal. Despite the general prevalence of using SI units in the modern world, kcal remains widely recognized as a unit of energy in the field of nutrition. We suggest four possible reasons for this. First, J did not originally refer to heat or potential energy. Second, the potential energy of food is measured by burning it and measuring the resulting increase in the temperature of water in a process directly related to the definition of cal. Third, cal is easy for the general public to understand. Fourth, cal is the unit most commonly used by the general public in daily life, and therefore must be adopted in field studies.

著者

三井 隆弘 重松 公司

出版者

岩手大学教育学部

雑誌

岩手大学教育学部研究年報 (ISSN:03677370)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.71, pp.9-16, 2012-03-10

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Little research has been undertaken on how units of measurement are understood, though they are commonly used and the importance of their inclusion in the educational curriculum has been widely recognized. The present paper reports on a cross-sectional survey consisting of 10 questions and designed to assess understanding of units of length, weight, velocity, and force, as well as significant digits, which we administered to 302 university students. The participants were classified according to their field of study. The average score was 2.7 ± 1.5 points (SD) (n = 138) among students not majoring in the natural sciences, and 4.6 ± 1.9 points (n =164) among natural science students; both scores were lower than we had expected. More than half of the students in the former group could not convert 5 m2 to 5 × 104 cm2 (50,000 cm2). Even in the latter group, less than 10% recognized 1 newton (N) as 1 kg m /s2. This is probably due to the reduced number of science classes offered from elementary school through senior high school and the reduced content of the classes that are offered.

著者

三井 隆弘 重松 公司

出版者

The Japan Society of Home Economics

雑誌

日本家政学会誌 (ISSN:09135227)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.63, no.3, pp.147-150, 2012

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The joule (J) has been the only scientific unit of energy included in the International System of Units(SI) since the 1950s; nevertheless, the calorie (cal) is still commonly used as a unit of energy in the field of nutrition and related areas. The unit used in any particular academic paper depends on the editorial policy of the publishing journal, so there is a great deal of inconsistency among academic papers in this field. We investigated in the present study the policy on energy units in 20 noted international journals and consider the reasons for each journal's policy. We identified five types of journal policy after contacting the journals and looking up 'energy intake' in PubMed. Two journals have exclusively adopted kJ (MJ), three require kJ but also permit authors to provide kcal in parentheses where appropriate, one allows the use of kcal but also requires kJ in parentheses when kcal is used, twelve allow both kcal and kJ, and two have exclusively adopted kcal. Despite the general prevalence of using SI units in the modern world, kcal remains widely recognized as a unit of energy in the field of nutrition. We suggest four possible reasons for this. First, J did not originally refer to heat or potential energy. Second, the potential energy of food is measured by burning it and measuring the resulting increase in the temperature of water in a process directly related to the definition of cal. Third, cal is easy for the general public to understand. Fourth, cal is the unit most commonly used by the general public in daily life, and therefore must be adopted in field studies.