[extropy-chat] funky frink function

[Alan Eliasen]

> Mike Lorrey writes:
>  > From:	(ft/s^2)*(1 year)
>  > To:	.9 c
>  > Result:	
>  > 0.035648925264461071933

Matthew Gingell wrote:
>  What are you trying to do? You want to write something like:
> 
>  (1 foot / second ^ 2) * 1 year -> c
>  0.03208403273801496474
> 
>  or
> 
>  (.032 c) / (1 foot / second ^2) -> years
>  0.9973808548725423151

   It wasn't quite clear what the calculations were trying to calculate, but
it appeared that you were trying to solve for the needed acceleration (over
the course of a year) to reach a fair fraction of the speed of light.

   Here's a hint:  you generally put the thing you want to solve for on the
right side of the -> operator, or in the To: box (same thing.)

   You can think of the -> operator as a very-low-precendence divide
operator, if that helps.

   So, if you wanted to see what constant acceleration you'd need to reach .9
c in a year, the (overly-simplified) calculation would be:

   .9 c / (1 year) -> ft/s^2

   Which gives a needed acceleration of about

   28.05 ft/s^2

   Which is hopefully what you were trying to calculate.  By the way, you can
replace the ft/s^2 with "gravity" or "gee", too, to give something in human
terms.  (It's just under 1 gee.)

   This calculation is, of course, oversimplified, and neglects the Lorentz
transformations which are necessary to give a correct answer, which are left
as an exercise for the reader.

   Your original calculation, 

   (ft/s^2)*(1 year) -> .9 c

   actually calculates the fraction of .9 c that you'd reach after
accelerating at 1 ft/s^2 for a year.  The numbers that you were getting were
thus showing you what fraction of .9 c you'd reach--about 3%.  If the right
side were just c, they'd show what fraction of lightspeed you'd reach.  Make
sense?
 
>  > Other than this, and the lack of the bushel as a unit, 
> 
>  It does have bushels:
> 
>  1 bushel
>  0.03523907016688 m^3 (volume)

   Thanks to Matthew for pointing this out correctly.  I'm going to hire him
for tech support.  :)

   If you don't think Frink has a particular unit, type in all or part of its
name after one or two question marks (two is more verbose):

   ??bushel

returns:

[canada_oatbushel = 771107029/50000000 (exactly 15.42214058) kg (mass),
wheatbushel = 136077711/5000000 (exactly 27.2155422) kg (mass),
brheapedbushel = 0.04647922416 m^3 (volume),
barleybushel = 136077711/6250000 (exactly 21.77243376) kg (mass),
bushel = 0.03523907016688 m^3 (volume),
ricebushel = 408233133/20000000 (exactly 20.41165665) kg (mass),
imperialbushel = 454609/12500000 (exactly 0.03636872) m^3 (volume),
irishbushel = 0.028526467849440879327 m^3 (volume),
brbushel = 454609/12500000 (exactly 0.03636872) m^3 (volume),
soybeanbushel = 136077711/5000000 (exactly 27.2155422) kg (mass),
cornbushel = 317514659/12500000 (exactly 25.40117272) kg (mass),
oatbushel = 45359237/3125000 (exactly 14.51495584) kg (mass),
ryebushel = 317514659/12500000 (exactly 25.40117272) kg (mass)]

   Showing what a fuddled mess of units that humans have contrived to
represent different measures.  Note, even, that many of the "bushels",
(normally a measure of volume) defined for commerce are actually measures of
mass (presumably because it's easier to weigh a truck than determine its
volume.)

   Ah, the tower of Babel that Frink was designed to topple.

-- 
  Alan Eliasen                 | "Whenever you find you are on the side of
  eliasen at mindspring.com       |  the majority, it is time to pause and
  http://futureboy.homeip.net/ |  reflect."  --Mark Twain