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Request - Preferably Use SI Units

posted by LaminatorX on Monday February 24 2014, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the How-many-slugs-to-the-stone? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"I have the following requests to members of this new forum:

1) Please use SI Units wherever possible. Alternative comparative units such as swimming pools, size of Florida, cars, libraries of congress, etc are also welcome ...

2) Please cover tech/science related stories from around the world. Please do not make this a US only website !!

Cheers and best wishes,

AnonTechie"

[ED Note: We as a community welcome submissions from around the world, as befits our international userbase. The Editorial team in particular is looking closely at including voices from outside the U.S. as we continue to grow. As for the units question in particular, stories will certainly arrive with a variety of units depending on the origin of the submission. We encourage, though do not require, submitters to include conversions where appropriate for clarity out of courtesy to your fellow readers. Though we try to use a light touch when making edits to story submissions, Editors may add these from time to time as well, should clarity demand and time permit.

Soylentils, does the current ad-hoc approach meet your needs, or do you favor a more formal approach from your news discussion site?]

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by CluelessMoron on Monday February 24 2014, @01:04AM

    by CluelessMoron (1374) on Monday February 24 2014, @01:04AM (#5415)
    There's a wonderful utility in Unix called "units" that converts from damn near anything to damn near anything else. If you already have Linux, you probably have it. If you're stuck with MS Windows, get "cygwin" and install units. Then you can do silly things like this:

    $ units
    2411 units, 71 prefixes, 33 nonlinear units

    You have: microfurlongs per fortnight
    You want: rods per second
            * 3.3068783e-11
            / 3.024e+10
    You have: footballfields per second
    You want: mph
            * 204.54545
            / 0.0048888889

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Interesting=1, Informative=3, Total=4
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   5  

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Monday February 24 2014, @01:12AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday February 24 2014, @01:12AM (#5421) Journal

    You're already using a browser.
    Just key it into the search bar:

    footballfields per second = ? mph

    Google will oblige.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @05:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @05:49AM (#5589)

      This is a good point. Why can't browsers handle this automatically?

      There should be a menu item or button that says "show original units" "show SI units" "show Imperial units" etc., that will automatically translate any units on the page.

      Of course, it would be great to have such units marked up using some sort of markup language, but short of that, there ought to be a simple workaround...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @07:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @07:21AM (#5640)

      google, ewww

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @01:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @01:11PM (#5773)

      But that uses American football fields - how do I get that in SI football fields?

      • (Score: 1) by Crash on Monday February 24 2014, @06:48PM

        by Crash (1335) on Monday February 24 2014, @06:48PM (#6050)

        Do you mean a Canadian football field?

      • (Score: 1) by CluelessMoron on Monday February 24 2014, @08:07PM

        by CluelessMoron (1374) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:07PM (#6120)

        I realize you're joking, but units does actually support "canadafootballfield". It doesn't have soccerfield presumably because there is no standard length for them, strangely enough.

        If you want to customize units, just add them to ".units.dat" in your home directory.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @03:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @03:11PM (#5853)

      Google will not even get what I type in the search bar. How is it supposed to oblige?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @01:13AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 24 2014, @01:13AM (#5422)

    Very cool. Thank you.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Monday February 24 2014, @01:35AM

    by M. Baranczak (1673) on Monday February 24 2014, @01:35AM (#5432)

    Thank you! My productivity on the job just shot up by 420 kirabs per muhurta.

    For the record, 'units' is also pre-installed on Mac OS.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday February 24 2014, @02:56AM

      by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 24 2014, @02:56AM (#5473) Journal

      Interesting... my kinetic viscosity of intelligence (it slowly drips through) accelerated by 1 stokes per lentor, or 0.016968364 cobalt if you prefer :3

      I don't know how that happened, I don't think it is right or proper, and I do not want to know because that's supposed to be a full 0.1‰ improvement in technobabble! :D

      --
      Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))

  • (Score: 1) by B1ackDragon on Monday February 24 2014, @02:35AM

    by B1ackDragon (1739) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:35AM (#5459)

    Google does this too: 2.5 footballfields per second in miles per hour [google.com]

    • (Score: 1) by CluelessMoron on Monday February 24 2014, @02:49AM

      by CluelessMoron (1374) on Monday February 24 2014, @02:49AM (#5469)

      And almost certainly they are using the Open Source Unix "units" to do so.

      So here we are full circle.