Jesse Rivest's Blog

Australians say "aluminium," whereas (unless I've been away too long and am losing my point-of-reference) Canadians say "aluminum." Being Canadian, I have had silly debates with Australians over which spelling is correct. Probably both are - in Coles supermakets you will find "aluminium foil" stocked on the shelves. Today I purchased a dictionary for $1 from a Lifeline store:

The Pocket Macquarie Dictionary. Second Edition, 1989. Jacaranda Wiley LTD, QLD, Australia. Reprinted 1997. ISBN 0 7016 2582 1.

This is an Australian dictionary and, as expected, there is an entry for "aluminium" and no entry for, or reference to, "aluminum." However, there is a periodic table on page 1207, and element number 13 is "aluminum!" Yet this dictionary's entry/definition for "aluminium" includes:

"Symbol: Al; at. wt: 26.9815; at. no: 13."

I might find this more amusing than you do! But it's all cool, see this link: http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.html. Ask me sometime about shopping carts in Australia...

Back to http://www.jesserivest.com/