units(1)units(1)NAMEunits - conversion program
SYNOPSISunitsDESCRIPTIONunits 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
Page 1
