UNITS(1) UNITS(1)
NAME
units - conversion program
SYNOPSIS
units [ -v ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
Units converts quantities expressed in various standard
scales to their equivalents in other scales. It works
interactively in this fashion:
you have: inch
you want: cm
* 2.54
/ 0.3937008
A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination of
units and floating point numbers. Operators have the fol-
lowing precedence:
+ - add and subtract
* / × ÷ multiply and divide
catenation multiply
² ³ ^ exponentiation
| divide
( ... ) grouping
Most familiar units, abbreviations, and metric prefixes are
recognized, together with a generous leavening of exotica
and a few constants of nature including:
pi,π ratio of circumference to diameter
c speed of light
e charge on an electron
g acceleration of gravity
force same as g
mole Avogadro's number
water pressure head per unit height of water
au astronomical unit
The `pound' is a unit of mass. Compound names are run
together, e.g. `lightyear'. British units that differ from
their US counterparts are prefixed thus: `brgallon'. Cur-
rency is denoted `belgiumfranc', `britainpound', etc.
The complete list of units can be found in /lib/units. A
file argument to units specifies a file to be used instead
of /lib/units. The -v flag causes units to print its entire
database.
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)
UNITS(1) UNITS(1)
EXAMPLE
you have: 15 pounds force/in²
you want: atm
* 1.020689
/ 0.9797299
FILES
/lib/units
SOURCE
/appl/cmd/units.y
/appl/cmd/units.b
BUGS
Since units does only multiplicative scale changes, it can
convert Kelvin to Rankine but not Centigrade to Fahrenheit,
except that the latter is handled as a special case.
Currency conversions are only as accurate as the last time
someone updated /lib/units.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)