159 lines
4.8 KiB
Groff
159 lines
4.8 KiB
Groff
.\" $Id$
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.TH UNITS 1 "14 July 1993"
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.SH NAME
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units - conversion program
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.SH SYNTAX
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.B units
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[-f filename] [-q] [to-unit from-unit]
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.SH SUMMARY
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.TP 4
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.B -f filename
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Specifies the name of the units data file to load.
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.LP
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.TP 4
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.B -q
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Suppresses prompting of the user for units and the display of statistics
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about the number of units loaded.
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.LP
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.TP 4
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.B from-unit to-unit
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Allows a single unit conversion to be done directly from the command
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line. The program will not print prompts. It will print out the
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result of the single specified conversion.
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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The units program converts quantities expressed in various scales to
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their equivalents in other scales. The units program can only
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handle multiplicative scale changes. It cannot convert Centigrade
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to Fahrenheit, for example. It works interactively by prompting
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the user for input:
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.nf
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You have: meters
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You want: feet
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* 3.2808399
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/ 0.3048
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You have: cm^3
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You want: gallons
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* 0.00026417205
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/ 3785.4118
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You have: meters/s
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You want: furlongs/fortnight
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* 6012.8848
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/ 0.00016630952
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You have: 1|2 inch
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You want: cm
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* 1.27
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/ 0.78740157
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.fi
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Powers of units can be specified using the '^' character as shown in
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the example, or by simple concatenation: 'cm3' is equivalent to 'cm^3'.
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Multiplication of units can be specified by using spaces, a dash or
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an asterisk. Division of units is indicated by the slash ('/').
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Note that multiplication has a higher precedence than division,
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so 'm/s/s' is the same as 'm/s^2' or 'm/s s'. Division of numbers
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must be indicated using the vertical bar ('|'). To convert half a
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meter, you would write '1|2 meter'. If you write '1/2 meter' then the
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units program would interpret that as equivalent to '0.5/meter'.
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If you enter incompatible unit types, the units program will
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print a message indicating that the units are not conformable and
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it will display the reduced form for each unit:
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.nf
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You have: ergs/hour
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You want: fathoms kg^2 / day
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conformability error
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2.7777778e-11 kg m^2 / sec^3
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2.1166667e-05 kg^2 m / sec
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.fi
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.LP
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The conversion information is read from a units data file. The default
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file includes definitions for most familiar units, abbreviations and
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metric prefixes. Some constants of nature included are:
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.in +4m
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.ta
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.ta 9m +
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.nf
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pi ratio of circumference to diameter
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c speed of light
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e charge on an electron
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g acceleration of gravity
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force same as g
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mole Avogadro's number
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water pressure per unit height of water
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mercury pressure per unit height of mercury
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au astronomical unit
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.fi
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.in -4m
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The unit 'pound' is a unit of mass. Compound names are run together
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so 'poundforce' is a unit of force. The unit 'ounce' is also a unit
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of mass. The fluid ounce is 'floz'. British units that differ from
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their US counterparts are prefixed with 'br', and currency is prefixed
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with its country name: 'belgiumfranc', 'britainpound'. When searching
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for a unit, if the specified string does not appear exactly as a unit
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name, then the units program will try to remove a trailing 's' or a
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trailing 'es' and check again for a match.
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.LP
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To find out what units are available read the standard units file.
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If you want to add your own units you can supply your own file.
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A unit is specified on a single line by
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giving its name and an equivalence. Be careful to define
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new units in terms of old ones so that a reduction leads to the
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primitive units which are marked with '!' characters.
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The units program will not detect infinite loops that could be caused
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by careless unit definitions. Comments in the unit definition file
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begin with a '/' character at the beginning of a line.
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.LP
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Prefixes are defined in the same was as standard units, but with
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a trailing dash at the end of the prefix name. If a unit is not found
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even after removing trailing 's' or 'es', then it will be checked
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against the list of prefixes. Prefixes will be removed until a legal
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base unit is identified.
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.LP
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Here is an example of a short units file that defines some basic
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units.
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.in 17m
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.ta
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.ta 9m +
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.nf
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m !a!
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sec !b!
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micro- 1e-6
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minute 60 sec
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hour 60 min
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inch 0.0254 m
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ft 12 inches
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mile 5280 ft
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.fi
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.in -17m
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.SH BUGS
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.LP
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The effect of including a '/' in a prefix is surprising.
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.LP
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Exponents entered by the user can be only one digit.
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You can work around this by multiplying several terms.
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.LP
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The user must use | to indicate division of numbers and / to
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indicate division of symbols. This distinction should not
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be necessary.
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.LP
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The program contains various arbitrary limits on the length
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of the units converted and on the length of the data file.
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.LP
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The program should use a hash table to store units so that
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it doesn't take so long to load the units list and check
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for duplication.
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.SH FILES
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units.lib - the standard units library
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.SH AUTHOR
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Adrian Mariano (adrian@cam.cornell.edu)
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