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units.1 (2054B)


      1 .TH UNITS 1
      2 .if n .ds / /
      3 .SH NAME
      4 units \- conversion program
      5 .SH SYNOPSIS
      6 .B units
      7 [
      8 .B -v
      9 ]
     10 [
     11 .I file
     12 ]
     13 .SH DESCRIPTION
     14 .I Units
     15 converts quantities expressed
     16 in various standard scales to
     17 their equivalents in other scales.
     18 It works interactively in this fashion:
     19 .IP
     20 .EX
     21 you have: inch
     22 you want: cm
     23     * 2.54
     24     / 0.393701
     25 .EE
     26 .PP
     27 A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination
     28 of units and floating point numbers.
     29 Operators have the following precedence:
     30 .IP
     31 .EX
     32 .ta \w'\fLXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'u
     33 \fL+\fP \fL-\fP	\f1add and subtract
     34 \fL*\fP \fL/\fP \fL×\fP \fL÷\fP	\f1multiply and divide
     35 catenation	multiply
     36 \fL²\fP \fL³\fP \fL^\fP	\f1exponentiation
     37 \fL|\fP	\f1divide
     38 \fL(\fP ... \fL)\fP	\f1grouping
     39 .EE
     40 .PP
     41 Most familiar units,
     42 abbreviations, and metric prefixes are recognized,
     43 together with a generous leavening of exotica
     44 and a few constants of nature including:
     45 .IP
     46 .de fq
     47 \fL\\$1\\fP	\\$2 \\$3 \\$4 \\$5 \\$6
     48 ..
     49 .ta \w'\fLwaterXXX'u
     50 .nf
     51 .fq pi,\f1π\fP ratio of circumference to diameter
     52 .fq c speed of light
     53 .fq e charge on an electron
     54 .fq g acceleration of gravity
     55 .fq force same as \fLg\fP
     56 .fq mole Avogadro's number
     57 .fq water "pressure head per unit height of water"
     58 .fq au astronomical unit
     59 .fi
     60 .PP
     61 The
     62 .L pound
     63 is a unit of
     64 mass.
     65 Compound names are run together, e.g.
     66 .LR lightyear .
     67 British units that differ from their US counterparts
     68 are prefixed thus:
     69 .LR brgallon .
     70 Currency is denoted
     71 .LR belgiumfranc ,
     72 .LR britainpound ,
     73 etc.
     74 .PP
     75 The complete list of units can be found in
     76 .BR \*9/lib/units .
     77 A
     78 .I file
     79 argument to
     80 .I units
     81 specifies a file to be used instead of
     82 .BR \*9/lib/units.
     83 The
     84 .B -v
     85 flag causes
     86 .I units
     87 to print its entire database.
     88 .SH EXAMPLE
     89 .EX
     90 you have: 15 pounds force/in²
     91 you want: atm
     92     * 1.02069
     93     / .97973
     94 .EE
     95 .SH FILES
     96 .B \*9/lib/units
     97 .SH SOURCE
     98 .B \*9/src/cmd/units.y
     99 .SH BUGS
    100 Since
    101 .I units
    102 does only multiplicative scale changes,
    103 it can convert Kelvin to Rankine but not Centigrade to
    104 Fahrenheit.
    105 .PP
    106 Currency conversions are only as accurate as the last time someone
    107 updated the database.