Heh, doesn't fully support the furlong-firking-forthinght system :(
Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
51–60 of 137 posts
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#52Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#53People interested in this should check out Frink. It has been around for a while and has thousands of unit conversions with explanations, as well as a web interface for the unit conversions part https://frinklang.org/ https://frinklang.org/frinkdata/units.txt https://frinklang.org/fsp/frink.fsp
There is also an open-source Rust implementation called rink-rs.
[0] https://github.com/tiffany352/rink-rs/ [1] https://github.com/tiffany352/rink-rs/blob/master/core/defin... [2] https://rinkcalc.app/
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#54Heh, doesn't fully support the furlong-firking-forthinght system :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system
*fortnight*
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
The units list is hilarious and amazingly detailed, a sample: crocodile := megavolt // used informally in UK physics labs ... footcandle := lumen/ft^2 // Illuminance from a 1 candela source // at a distance of one foot ... // In Britain, the deal is apparently any piece of wood over 6 feet long, over // 7 wide and 2.5 inches thick. The OED doesn't give a standard size. A piece // of wood less than 7 inches wide is ca…
The editorial on Hz is particularly funny and insightful. // Beware the SI's broken definition // of Hz. You should treat the radian as being correct, as a fundamental // dimensionless property of the universe that falls out of pure math like // the Taylor series for sin[x], and you should treat the Hz as being a // fundamental property of incompetence by committee. ... // You are perfectly right. You are perfectly w…
I don't find this rambling insightful at all. Here is what the BIPM actually says about the topic:
The SI unit of frequency is hertz, the SI unit of angular velocity and angular frequency is radian per second, and the SI unit of activity is becquerel, implying counts per second. Although it is formally correct to write all three of these units as the reciprocal second, the use of the different names emphasizes the different nature of the quantities concerned. It is especially important to carefully distinguish frequencies from angular frequencies, because by definition their numerical values differ by a factor1 of 2π. Ignoring this fact may cause an error of 2π. Note that in some countries, frequency values are conventionally expressed using “cycle/s” or “cps” instead of the SI unit Hz, although “cycle” and “cps” are not units in the SI. Note also that it is common, although not recommended, to use the term frequency for quantities expressed in rad/s. Because of this, it is recommended that quantities called “frequency”, “angular frequency”, and “angular velocity” always be given explicit units of Hz or rad/s and not 1/s.
I find this very concise and clear.
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#56Having the units listed alphabetically rather than by size is weird. "Megabits/Minute" then "Megabits/Nanosecond" then "Megabits/Second"... ugh.
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#57Has anyone found a more elegant treatment of calculating with units than the HP calculators?
I'd love to have an HP48 CLI to do unit calcs with.
.5 * 10_m/s^2 * (15_s)^2 = 1125_m
sqrt(6.673E-11_N*m^2/kg^2 * 5.98E24_kg / 6780_km) =
242603.08_N^.5*m/(kg^.5*km^.5)
Everything else I've found have been just super fiddly.
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#58What kind of a toy converter is this? Doesn't have even the most basic units, like Delisle temp scale. Bah, shame.
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#59Heh, doesn't fully support the furlong-firking-forthinght system :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system
No love for elbows either.
Re: Show HN: I created Units Converter that contains 5000 units across 78 categories
#60Having the units listed alphabetically rather than by size is weird. "Megabits/Minute" then "Megabits/Nanosecond" then "Megabits/Second"... ugh.
Well, it only makes sense to sort by size if the units are comparable. I guess we'd need a converter for that. Oh, wait...