The information contained here is only a guide and you should check your preferred reference if it is a critical matter as the author can not take responsibility for any errors in this page or from the references used by the author.
Feel free to email me about any errors you find in this page.
The most common method in Australia is:
Europe seems to like using the following conventions:
The international standard way to list dates are:
|
Term |
Significance |
Corresponding Decimal Factor |
| Million | thousand X thousand | 106 |
| Billion | million X million | 1012 |
| Trillion | million X billion | 1018 |
| Quadrillion | million X trillion | 1024 |
In general it is best to avoid the use of billion, trillion and quadrillion or use powers of ten to represent them or write them out in full. Some use the metric mega, giga, tera, peta and exa to refer to big numbers, but usually in reference to metric numbers that fall under the SI unit system.
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Saturday and Sunday are generally considered as week ends and are traditionally days off from work. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are considered traditional working days. Australia like many other countries also has some days in the year designated as public holidays. These days are also traditionally considered as days off from work.
Months:
| January[1, 31] | February [2, 28] | March [3, 31] | April [4, 30] |
| May [5, 31] | June [6, 30] | July [7, 31] | August [8, 31] |
| September [9, 30] | October [10, 31] | November [11, 30] | December [12, 31] |
February has 29 days on a leap year. Leap years take place every four years.
Time:
Greetings within the customer service industry
In the service industry, it is very unwise to say 'see you later' as some cultures misunderstand this to mean exactly what you say rather then a throw away line that essentially means 'goodbye.'
Another service industry standard is to be aware of how close you are standing to some one. Different cultures like to stand at different distances when having a conversation with you.
Another thing to be aware of is that different countries view customer service people in different ways. Some expect you to stay quietly in the background. Others are offended if you do not come up and shake their hand. Some cultures consider customer service jobs as important while other cultures consider such jobs as the last choice anyone would take when searching for work.
Some people are quite pedantic, especially Australians, about when you say 'good morning, good day, good evening and good afternoon.' Some of these people work in the service industry and greeting people is common. I generally say:
In Australia you can get away with the less formal 'hello', 'good day mate' or 'how it going' at most times of the day or night. For those who are pedantic on when you should say a particular greeting, then I am sure there is some guide lines some place out there.
Daylight Savings
Day light savings actually occurs at differing through the year depending on where you are. In Australia, Queensland does not have daylight savings. For the rest of Australia we use the following (European) guidelines:
America does the following
Temperature is measured in degrees Celsius, degrees Kelvin or degrees Fahrenheit.
Ovens are listed as:
| Deg. Cel. | Deg. F. | Gas Mark | |
| Very Slow | 120 | 250 | 1 |
| Slow | 150 | 300 | 2 |
| Moderately Slow | 160 | 325 | 3 |
| Moderate | 180-190 | 350-375 | 4 |
| Moderately Hot | 190(g)-210(e) | 375-425 | 5 |
| Hot | 200(g)-240(e) | 400-475 | 6 |
| Very Hot | 230(g)-260(e) | 450-525 | 7 |
| (g) = gas (e) = electric | |||
Sample dial settings for a square type electric fry pan. To get a exact measure I usually like to use temperature probes on the surface. The controllers for fry pans can be a little rough.
| Dial Setting | Deg. Cel. | Temperature roughly |
| 1 | 100 | |
| 2 | 110 | |
| 3 | 125 | Very Slow |
| 4 | 140 | |
| 5 | 150 | Slow |
| 6 | 160 | Moderately Slow |
| 7 | 175 | Moderate |
| 8 | 185 | Moderate Hot |
| 9 | 200 | Hot |
| 10 | 210 |
As you can see a mark can mean different temperatures dependant on the device. This is the reason I think you should read the manual or use a temperature probe to check things out. Experienced cooks and chefs use other methods such as the browning of bread or the tossing of water onto the plate or the sound of meat sizzling to get a idea of temperatures. If you cook a lot you too will find alternative methods of telling the temperature of a device.
An Australian standard cup holds 250 ml of liquid. The most accurate method of measuring dry ingredients is to weigh them.
The average egg is assumed to be 60g in Australia. But always look to the recipe to check on measurements since they vary from one country to another often.
The hectares measure is often used for farm land. It comes from the seldom used hecto metre that is equivalent to 100 m or 0.1 km.
Astronomers can often speak in kpc or Mpc.
The astronomical unit (a.u.) is used to describe things in our solar system and is based on the distance from the sun to the earth if the earth followed a perfectly circular orbit of 365.2568983263 days around the sun ( which in fact, it does not).
For measurements between stars and galactic measurements, the light year or parsec is preferred.
