4 ms·
Units of mass used: gigaelectronvolts (implicitly times c²), solar masses Units of length used: centimetres, megaparsecs When measuring the whole universe it'
by Y_Y 3y ago
Units of mass used: gigaelectronvolts (implicitly times c²), solar masses
Units of length used: centimetres, megaparsecs
When measuring the whole universe it's hard to pick a scale. Anyway astrophysicists are the worst for this. The rest of science is happy with SI(, or sometimes naturalized units when you're doing theory and dealing with integer qualities and numbers that you don't care about). But in astrophysics brightness is measured on a scale set by one of the Ptolemys looking at stars and literally eyeballing it. They'll measure mass in terms of energy, energy in "ergs" and do some godawful mix of imperial, metric and miscellaneous that makes electric charge something comparable to square root of energy times length.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoTheir car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way they like it.
- tzs 3y agos/cars/container ships/ 40 rods to the hogshead is 0.00198 miles per gallon (or 504 gallons per mile). Actually that is low even for a container ship but it is at least in the same ballpark. I prefer to give fuel efficiency in fuel used for a given distance rather than distance for a given amount of fuel. My car's fuel efficiency is 23 picoacres or 9.3 picohectares.
- tenthirtyam 3y agoUseful XKCD here regarding weird units: https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/ TLDR; "If you took all the gas you burned on a trip and stretched it out into a thin tube along your route, 0.1 square millimeters would be the cross-sectional area of that tube."
- pavel_lishin 3y agoPoint of order, neither acres nor hectares are a measure of distance.
- tzs 3y agogallons/mile or liters/km are volume/length. Volume units are length^3. Thus we end up with length^2.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoI stand happily corrected!
- hnuser123456 3y agoFor more human-friendly numbers, 20 miles per gallon = 0.14 mm^2. 30 mpg = 0.09 mm^2.
- hnuser123456 3y agoAnd I guess the realistic interpretation of this is the cross section of a tube of gasoline that was laid down the road that could keep your engine fed without a tank.
- Y_Y 3y agoEven better you can replace your fuel injector with a scoop at the front of the car and drive forward along the fuel tube for a sort of JIT fuelling option.
- Y_Y 3y agoPardon me, but I believe this would be a "point of information" (aka request) rather than a "point of order" which should refer to a procedural matter rather than factual. For reference of course I would refer you to Robert's Rules of Order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1zxPRRf4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1zxPRRf4g