On Tuesday 29 June 2010 23:50:33 James R. Frysinger wrote: > I came across a unit of measure called a slyke in an esoteric journal > article relating to biochemistry. This is the first time I have seen > this unit used. Fortunately, the author provided this definition: > "A slyke is the number of micromoles of HCl added to 1 mL of test > solution to get a 7 to 6 pH change." The application of this unit is > used in measuring the buffer capacity of a test solution.
What's a micromole of NaOH per milliliter that causes a 7 to 8 pH change called? "Slyke" reminds me of "slype", a word that came up in Fictionary years ago. It means a covered passageway between buildings, especially in a church. > We've allowed the kat to come into our SI house. Let us not allow the > slyke to slither in. You mean the katal, right? Kows are much bigger than kats. My favorite nonsense combination of units is the morgan per sturt. Both units are used in biology. A morgan (which is in Rowlett's) is a length of chromosome which undergoes, on average, one crossover per generation; a sturt (which isn't) is an angular separation of two organs in an embryo, as if the embryo were a sphere. If a mutation happens in the first division, so that the two cells of a two-cell embryo are different, the probability, in percent, that the two organs have different states of this mutation is the distance between them in sturts. Pierre -- I believe in Yellow when I'm in Sweden and in Black when I'm in Wales.
