Taking accurate search results too far?

[fluffymark]

Typing “1 a day” into Google results in a single hit, which delights my inner physicist:

1 a day = 1.15740741 × 10^-05 hertz

Totally accurate. And yet, totally useless. I wonder if there are any more silly results like that?

*playswithgoogle* la la la....

oh yes!...googling for “teaspoon” gives the equally accurate result

1 US teaspoon = 4.92892161 milliliters

*amused* Now I can bake cakes with an accuracy to 9 significant figures. Or something. Um

*moreplayingwithgoogle* la la...

*eeeep!* Inevitable really - combining the above and googling for “teaspoons per day” gives the remarkable result that

1 US teaspoons per day = 5.70477039 × 10^-11 m³ / s

and even more silly, googling for “speed of light per pint” gives the truly astounding

the speed of light per US pint = 6.33574309 × 10¹¹ m^-2 s^-1

*amused*

Feel free to go and find even sillier ones. I strongly encourage it. *hopefulbounces*

Update

I've found a bug in Google! :) It thinks sidereal years are unitless!

1 sidereal year = 365.256363

That should, of course, be in days. But it isn't. Do i get a prize if I tell them? :)

Comments

[davefish.livejournal.com]

Thats wonderful. I may have to try some later on today.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

speed of light per pint

Isn't that technically bollocks?

[senji.livejournal.com]

Googling for "the answer to life the universe and everything in seconds" gives:
the answer to life the universe and everything = 8 663 121.86 arcseconds

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

I once read a book containing articles about town planning from the 60s (it was a lot more interesting than it sounds) which contained a wonderful unit, used in all seriousness, something like 'candles per foot-pound'.

Speed of light per US pint is obviously a future-American unit of measurement for spaceship travel. Two US pints of hyper-spongwhizzy-neutronium allow one to accelerate to a speed of 0.2c, or something. At least that's what they said in the 50s. :)

[zotz]

It's a valid unit. I can't think of anything you'd measure in it, but it's no weirder than the joule-second, which is what Planck's constant is a (very small) number of.

[zotz]

It doesn't give a value for attoparsecs per microfortnight. I am tremendously disappointed.

[fluffymark]

No, it's entirely correct, just perverse and completely pointless.

However:

1 US pints per millenium = 1.49943779 × 10^-14 m³ / s

might sound like it might make sense regarding the amount drank on a certain night a few years back, but that doesn't turn out to be very much according to Google. :)

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

In case you ahven't seen (http://www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)...

[fluffymark]

Hmmmmm...

"the answer to life the universe and everything in roman numerals"

gives

the answer to life the universe and everything = XLII

Quite right too. *smallsmile*

[fluffymark]

1 candela per foot-pound = 0.737562149 m^-2 kg^-1 s² cd

There you go. :)

Sadly, Google's calculator hasn't heard of the foot-lambert, which is one of my favourite names for a unit. Which is disappointing, as I've always wanted to know what it actually is.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Well it's dimensionally correct, but where on earth are the numbers conjured up from?

[fluffymark]

:(

Closest you can get is:

1 attoParsecs per fortnight = 2.55099227 × 10^-08 m / s

[zotz]

3E8m/s divided by about 0.045m^3.

[fluffymark]

*nods* Seen it, but it doesn't give a complete list of units it knows about. I have this urge to hunt down all the weird ones. :)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

The British Gravitational System...

The three base units are the foot, the second, and the pound-force.

In the BG system the mass unit is the slug and is defined from the Newton's Second Law (1). The unit of mass, the slug, was then derived from the pound-force by defining it as that mass that will accelerate at 1 foot per second per second when a 1 pound-force acts upon it:

1 lb = (1 slug)(1 ft/s²)
1 lb force acting on 1 slug mass will give the mass an acceleration of 1 ft/s².

All of which conveniently brings us to:

Slugs per Pint (http://www.google.com/search?q=slugs+per+pint)

[zotz]

No. A pint's smaller than that. 0.00045m^3

[fluffymark]

Right, I'm moving to Scotland if pints are that size. :)

[fluffymark]

Hooray!!!! If slugs is a unit then that means:

1 earth mass = 4.09362734 × 10²³ slugs

That's a lot of slugs. :)

[olithered.livejournal.com]

Also available for the non-yanks (http://www.google.com/search?q=slugs+per+imperial+pint).

[zotz]

Only on special occasions.

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

the speed of light = 1.8026175 × 10¹² furlongs per fortnight

[fluffymark]

Even better, this one:

1 slug bit = 3.05352661 × 10^-25 earth mass bytes

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

1 carat per square cubit = 0.000956792037 kg / m²

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

This one looks odd:

middle c per day = 0.00302807367 ^-2

which works out as 109060.4100385342. Weird. I worked it out as 22604448.816.

[fluffymark]

No, thats correct, you've just lost the seconds somewhere. Middle c is in Hertz, so middle c per day is in s^-2.

"middle c per (1 a day)" gives:

middle c per (1 a day) = 22 604 448.8

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

Hmm... makes more sense!

[nevla.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Nice one!

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Going through units.dat (http://www.calculator.com/calcs/units.dat) then?

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Ask Helen?

[deborah_c]

Only yesterday I was sitting in the bath trying idly to calculate the ABV of a cake. If only I'd known (and had a waterproof laptop, of course)...

"6 uk fluid ounces divided by (pi times (7 inches) squared times 5cm) times 80 percent in percent" gives 2.74647768 percent (to a ludicrous degree of accuracy :). Sadly, it doesn't appear to know about proof measures.

[fluffymark]

The unit in which one measures foot massages from libellum ;)

[fluffymark]

I've decided I like your cakes already. Recipe?

[deborah_c]

Hmm. A Dictionary of Units of Measurement says "The lambert is a large unit, and practical measurements tend to be in millilamberts (mLa)". I'm not quite sure we have entirely the right lambert...

[fluffymark]

Not sure I like the thought of millilamberts. We may need to recalibrate the lambert. I hope Helen doesn't mind.

[nipple-salad.livejournal.com]

Lol!! (<---- the most insightful comment so far)

[deborah_c]

Fundamentally, the equation more or less is the recipe, or at least most of the important bits.

Make a conventional chocolate sponge cake, split between two 7 inch baking tins. When it has thoroughly cooled (this is important, or cake will disintegrate!) drizzle a quarter of a pint of Ströh rum through it, catching what comes out in a bowl. (I suggest putting the cake on a cooling rack or similar for this. And yes, I know I said 6floz above, but I didn't feel like leaving trace quantities in the bottle :)

Whip some cream (whipping or double; I used 1/2 pint last time, but that was probably overkill), mixing in (after whipping) any Ströh that fell out of the rest of the cake. Cover the top of one of the sponges, and carefully put the other on top; decorate with remaining cream and glace cherries (which can be soaked in rum first if you want to and think ahead slightly).

Eat with care, preferably sitting down.

[deborah_c]

Oh, and you can also use shaved dark chocolate on the top, if you're feeling indulgent (and you actually have any; my shopping was slightly negligent last time...)

[fluffymark]

Sounds truly yummy, and you've just set me off with severe cake cravings.

[deborah_c]

My life's work is now done :)

Yes, but...

[applez.livejournal.com]

Is that teaspoon at sea-level or at high elevation, and can you calculate the difference in gravity? ;-)

[senji.livejournal.com]

Well, as we all know, the milliHelen is the measure of beauty required to launch one ship...

[fluffymark]

*smallsmile* Oh yes. I like that idea. :)

Re: Yes, but...

[fluffymark]

Must be at sea-level. At high elevation, water boils significantly below 100C and so you can't brew tea. Thus no need for a teaspoon. ;)

[medieval-bunny.livejournal.com]

You're potty! I like you so much!

[fluffymark]

*smallcurtsey* always delighted to please you, sweetie. *wavespompoms*

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Cannot comment, too busy giggling with delight. =)

Re: Yes, but...

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Yes you can. Civilised mountaineers have pressure-kettles.

Odd question:

Do sherpas live above the altitude that you can't heat water to 60° ? If so, how do they cook at all? Sixty's the minimum for pasteurisation and, while you can use an oven or a pan to roast or fry your food, the latent heat of vapourising water out of it will cool it very efficiently, up to and beyond the point that it's so dried-out as to be inedible. Overdone and still crawling with salmonella!

Hello

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

met you at the rbk/last dance gig, feel free to add me if you would like :)

Re: Hello

[fluffymark]

Nice meeting you - looking forward to any photos you may have (I hope some of them survived your unruly camera!). Have added you. :)