> Speaking of barleycorns reminds me that one can have a lot of fun with > units. My favorite combination has components > > atmosphere = 101,325 newton/m^2 > yard = 0.9144 m > barn = 1 x 10^(-28) m^2 > > Combining these we get the > > barn yard atmosphere = 9.265158 x 10^(-24) joule > > a unit of energy.
Just to relate this to our everyday experience, I would like to point out that the barn yard atmosphere is also a convenient unit of temperature, lying just between the Fahrenheit and Celsius degrees. I once heard that the mass of the electron in pounds is exactly 2.000000 X 10^-30, but I don't know whose pound you need to use to get this. (When the Germans say "pfund", they mean half a kilo.) --Art Carlson
