SysIII/usr/src/man/man1/units.1

.tr ~
.TH UNITS 1
.SH NAME
units \- conversion program
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B units
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Units\^
converts quantities expressed
in various standard scales to
their equivalents in other scales.
It works interactively in this fashion:
.PP
.nf
.RS
.RB "You have:~~" inch
.RB "You want:~~" cm
.RS +8
\(** 2.540000e+00
\(sl 3.937008e\-01
.RE
.fi
.RE
.PP
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:
.PP
.nf
.RS
.RB "You have:~~" "15 lbs force/in2"
.RB "You want:~~" atm
.RS +8
\(** 1.020689e+00
\(sl 9.797299e\-01
.RE
.fi
.RE
.PP
.I Units\^
only does multiplicative scale changes;
thus it can convert Kelvin to Rankine, but not Centigrade 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:
.RS
.PD 0
.TP "\w'water~~~~'u"
.B pi
ratio of circumference to diameter,
.TP
.B c
speed of light,
.TP
.B e
charge on an electron,
.TP
.B g
acceleration of gravity,
.TP
.B force
same as
.BR g ,
.TP
.B mole
Avogadro's number,
.TP
.B water
pressure head per unit height of water,
.TP
.B au
astronomical unit.
.PD
.RE
.PP
.B Pound
is not recognized as a unit of
mass;
.B lb
is.
Compound names are run together, (e.g.
.BR lightyear ).
British units that differ from
their \s-1U\s+1\&.\s-1S\s+1\&. counterparts are prefixed thus:
.BR brgallon .
For a complete list of units, type:
.PP
.RS
cat /usr/lib/unittab
.RE
.SH FILES
/usr/lib/unittab
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