OT: Speed of light [was Re: Why not a Python compiler?]

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-02-13, Jeff Schwab <jeff at schwabcenter.com> wrote:
> Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2008-02-13, Jeff Schwab <jeff at schwabcenter.com> wrote:
>> 
>>>> Eh? Last I checked both pound and kilogram are units of mass, so where is
>>>> the incompatibility?
>>> I've never heard of "pound" as a unit of mass.  At least where I went to 
>>> school (Boston, MA), "pound" is the English unit of force, "slug" is the 
>>> (rarely used) English unit of mass,
>> 
>> Back in the day, I was once working on a fire control system
>> for the Navy.  All the units in the calculations were purely
>> metric except for one: air density was in slugs/m3.  I always
>> suspected that was somebody's attempt at humor.
>
> So what is the mass of a slug, anyway?  (I assume this is slug as in 
> bullet, not slimy, creeping thing.)

A slug is 14.593903 kg according to the trysty old Unix "units"
program.  Hmm, I always thought a slug weighed exactly 32 lbs,
but I see it's 32.174049.  Learn something new every day...

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I feel better about
                                  at               world problems now!
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