units(1)

units -- conversion program

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 USA counterparts are prefixed thus: ``brgallon''. For a complete list of units, type:

cat /usr/share/lib/unittab

Files

/usr/share/lib/unittab