Conversion factor
Ragknot got an email from Lori that said the axpproximate
conversion factor to use was 0.1417322834.
He thought a minute and said it would be exactly 36/254.
Question: What units was Ragknot convert to and from?
Hint: ____ per ______ * 36 / 254 = ____ per ____
conversion factor to use was 0.1417322834.
He thought a minute and said it would be exactly 36/254.
Question: What units was Ragknot convert to and from?
Hint: ____ per ______ * 36 / 254 = ____ per ____
Labels: funphysics
posted by Ragknot at
12:13 PM
20 Comments:
0.1417322834 = 36/254.
So, if this is a factor, he was converting from 1.
So, what's the problem?
36 is a perfect square of 6.
254 is 2 shy of a perfect square of 16.
Also, 36/254 can also be expressed as 18/127. Or (3^2 x 2^2)/127. And 127 is also the 4th Mersenne Prime Number.
I have a feeling the road goes this way, but I am not sure what units are being traded...
Why is it labeled funphysics and not Mathemagic.
254 is a special number for something, it's a common number you would see in slightly different forms in many conversions.
Physics - (Greek: physis meaning "nature") is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as mass, matter and its motion and all that derives from these, such as energy, charge, force, and spacetime. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the world and universe behave.
Yes, it fits here.
inch per yard * 36/254=decimeter per thou(1/1000 of an inch)
To the last anon:
Brilliant, but wrong. Inches per yard would be a length per length, that would be an odd thing. But you did get pretty close. There are (exactly) 2.54 cm per inch. So in that respect, lets say your getting warm.
If the answer lies in conversion between arbitrary units of measurement, then that is nothing to do with pure physics as such. These are purely man-made units.
It would be remarkable if 1 inch = 2.54 cm exactly, since each unit of measurement arose independently of the other, yet that is all I can find from a quick Google.
Yes, 2.54 cm is EXACTLY one inch.
And yes, this is a important physical scientific measurment of something as common as the ground you walk on.
They were obviously attempting to determine how close together to place pitchers of beer along the marathon route to be taken by Ragknot (and his friends) the next day.
Since Ragknot requested 1 Barrel of Beer for every inch of the course (Ragknot had a LOT of very thirsty friends) and they needed to put the beer out in 10 gallon pitchers (and of course wanted to use the metric system - since Beer is typically measured in Old Enghish units of 36 "Beer Gallons" per "Beer Barrel" and a marathon is measured in miles that only makes sense). Thus, the factor alluded to allowed them to convert Beer-Barrels/in to Pitchers/mm.
Of course, they could have just been wanting to convert the expected average speed at which the marathon would be traversed and needed something like:
µm/s to in/hr-h
36/254*10 is almost exactly square root of 2
seconds per micrometer * 36/254=hours per inch
60 sec * 60 min = 1 hour
1 inch = 25400 micrometers
The saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil(KSat) is an important physical property that influences the capacity of the soil to retain and transport water.
metric units are micro meters per second
English units are inches per hour
Oh wow, talk about an obscure conversion. Did you think anyone besides an agricultural engineer would think to use micrometers per second and inches an hour.
I expected people to recognize that 254 was a conversion of some metric unit to inches. Rates are mostly about seconds, minutes, or hours. 3600 seconds per hour. Then you would need to add two zeros to 254 for the 36 to mean something about time. Then 36/254 = 3600/25400.
Simple
inch per hour * 36/254=micrometer per second
Yeah I knew 2.54 was cm to inches. But I was off by 100x and didn't think about it being 3600 instead of just 36.
Actually it is...
[Microns/Sec] * 3600 / 25400
= [Inches/Hour]
.......................
because 3600 sec = 1 hour
and 25400 microns = 1 inch
But 3600/25400 = 36/254 ; that's the whole riddle part. That also equals 0.1417322834 which is the original conversion factor, the 36/254 was a simplification of that conversion factor.
My logic was...
1.In a converting units, 254 means converting from metric length to an inch, there just a question about where the decimal might go.
2. The "per" would mean a rate, and time would be probable.
3. 36... if time it could only be 3600 sec per hour. So I would need to add two zeros to the 254.
4. So it is 3600/25400.
5. Then 1/25400 of an inch is a micron (aka.. a micro meter).
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