Obscure units

[traff]

I recall reading or hearing a quote about always using obscure units (non SI) when publishing results, nobody will be bothered to check if they are correct. It may not have been phrased quite like that but that was the general gist of it.

Is it attributed to anyone? I?ve tried to google it but so far drawn a blank, so I thought I would ask you educated bunch.

 

[ALEXW]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement

doesn't answer the question but will give you some to use if you have results to publish.

I have just set some of my students the task of finding the depth of Gaping Gill and converting it to Light-nanoseconds, that should give me enough time for another cup of coffee.

 

[Oceanrower]

334.33 light nanoseconds 

Unless I got the point in the wrong place, in which case

334.33 light nanoseconds 

(Assuming this is accurate http://www.ingleboroughcave.co.uk/gaping-gill.htm and allowing a little bit for rounding!)

 

[ALEXW]

Well done Oceanrower, now convert the volume of the main chamber to Albert Halls.

 

[Maj]

Ooo! Ooo!

Another chance to use an obscure measure of length.

Depth of GG 16 ropes.

The small print:-
If it were in Somerset and you were planning on building a drystone wall 

Maj.

 

[Fulk]

now convert the volume of the main chamber to Albert Halls

About 1.5 . . . ???

 

[cap n chris]

Size of The Frozen Deep, Reservoir Hole, is 144.4 nanoWales.

 

[Spike]

now convert the volume of the main chamber to Albert Halls

About 1.5 . . . ???

Roughly half a gigawalnut...

 

[traff]

And back on topic please......

 

[robjones]

The quote is "Measurements will always be expressed in the least possibly useful units. Velocity, for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight."

This is sometimes listed as being one of "Klipstein's Laws" but Klipstein is simply the equivalent of Murphy (as in "Murphy's Law) for engineers, rather than a genuine person to attribute the quotation to.

 

[Chocolate fireguard]

The quote is "Measurements will always be expressed in the least possibly useful units. Velocity, for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.

Furlongs per fortnight measures speed, not velocity. No direction is specified.

 

[robjones]

The quote is "Measurements will always be expressed in the least possibly useful units. Velocity, for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.

Furlongs per fortnight measures speed, not velocity. No direction is specified.

Recalling that the quote sought specifically mentioned furlongs per fortnight, I googled the term and found the quote more or less as I recalled it on this site: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki? from which I uncritically cut and pasted it to ukc. Googling the entire quote lead me to numerous engineering sites that listed versions of the quote among Klipstein's Laws, a name I'd not previously encountered. So I quoted the quote exactly as I found it, with incorrect terminology, on the grounds that one isn't supposed to muck about with quotes by correcting them.

 

[AR]

From the Peak mining perspective, I ought to champion the meer and its sub-divison the quarter cord as a measurement of distance, especially since it varies from liberty to liberty.... GG would be slightly under a quarter cord shy of three High Peak Queensfield meers.

 

[Spike]

In an effort to make it up to Traff for straying more than a brontosaurus off topic, I spent a millifortnight perusing the interwebs. My mind was jogged by Rob's "furlongs per fortnight" and I came across this paper, which seems to have been published in Creative Computing magazine Jan/Feb 1978:

The Contributions of Edsel Murphy to the Understanding of How the Behavior of Inanimate Objects Affects Computing, Computing Devices and Computer Science.


Chapter III, Part B, Section 4, Corollary 9 reads:

Dimensions will be given in the least usable units. Tape velocity, for example, will be given in furlongs per fortnight.

Anyone using this comment as a hard and fast reference to this being the source of the quote however may be guilty of Citogenesis

Regardless, the paper's good for a chortle - in the same section, Corollary 1 states: Interchangeable parts, won't.

Hey ho, back to work...

 

[Burt]

....the angle of dangle being equal to the thrust of the crust.

 

[Pie Muncher]

 

[owd git]

Spike; I, for one, will never eat a walnut in the same way. thank you. 

 

[hyweldavies]

The quote is "Measurements will always be expressed in the least possibly useful units. Velocity, for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.

Furlongs per fortnight measures speed, not velocity. No direction is specified.

So what about metres per second then ?

 

[Laurie]

Foot lbs seems to be a forgoten measure these days. 

 

[traff]

Thanks for the replies. I've found quotes going back to the 60's but nothing definitive.

Like the bit on citogenesis.