From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Fri May 17 2002 - 23:43:45 MDT
At 07:35 PM 5/17/02 -0700, spike66 wrote:
> My solution all thru engineering school was to first convert
> any english units to SI, do the problem, then convert back
>one can partially undo the curse of the english unit system
>and will not get answers that are mysteriously off by a
>factor of about 32.
In the dim past, I moved from one State in Oz to another at the age of 15
(to enter a monastery, as it happens), and there they used different units
of a *weird and disturbing and mindbending kind*. I never got over it. My
poor brain froze up and went sideways into writing instead. To appreciate
this horror fully, you have to consider that whereas I had arduously
learned about something called foot-pounds, abruptly everyone was airily
using an abomination called foot-poundals. To go from the former to
Calories, grams, multiply by 0.3239. To go from foot-poundals to joules,
multiply by 0.04214 (if I understand this). It goes against god's express
command, I tell you. In fact, I wonder at the easy life Spike had, with a
correction factor of just 32. There are 32.174 foot-pounds per foot-poundal.
http://www.currentsolutions.com/knowledge/conversion_a-f.htm
Damien Broderick
[A doctor, but I only play a physicist on TV]
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