UNITS(1) User Commands UNITS(1)

NAME

units - converts quantities expressed in standard scales to other
scales

SYNOPSIS

units

DESCRIPTION

units converts quantities expressed in various standard scales to
their equivalents in other scales. It works interactively in this
fashion:

You have:~~inch
You want:~~cm
* 2.540000e+00
/ 3.937008e-01


A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination of units
optionally preceded by a numeric multiplier. Powers are indicated by
suffixed positive integers, division by the usual sign:

You have:~~15 lbs force/in2
You want:~~atm
* 1.020689e+00
/ 9.797299e-01


units only does multiplicative scale changes; thus it can convert
Kelvin to Rankine, but not Celsius to Fahrenheit. Most familiar
units, abbreviations, and metric prefixes are recognized, together
with a generous leavening of exotica and a few constants of nature
including:

pi
ratio of circumference to diameter,


c
speed of light,


e
charge on an electron,


g
acceleration of gravity,


force
same as g,


mole
Avogadro's number,


water
pressure head per unit height of water,


au
astronomical unit.


Pound is not recognized as a unit of mass; lb is. Compound names are
run together, (for example, lightyear). British units that differ
from their U.S. counterparts are prefixed thus: brgallon. For a
complete list of units, type:


cat /usr/share/lib/unittab

FILES

/usr/share/lib/unittab

SEE ALSO

attributes(7)

September 14, 1992 UNITS(1)