units(1)						      General Commands Manual							  units(1)

NAME

       units - conversion program

SYNOPSIS

       file]

DESCRIPTION

       converts quantities expressed in various standard scales to their equivalents in other scales.  It works interactively as follows:

	      System Prompt	  User Response

	      The system responds with two factors; one used if multiplying
	      (preceded by the other if dividing (preceded by

       After providing the conversion factors, prompts for the next set of values.  To terminate press the interrupt character as defined for your
       login.

       A quantity is specified as a multiplicative combination of units optionally preceded by a numeric multiplier.  Powers are indicated by suf-
       fixed positive integers, and division by the usual sign:

	      System Prompt	  User Response

	      The system responds with:

       only  does multiplicative scale changes; thus it can convert Kelvin to Rankine, but not Celsius to Fahrenheit.  Most familiar units, abbre-
       viations, and metric prefixes are recognized, together with a generous leavening of exotica and a few constants of nature including:
	      ratio of circumference to diameter
	      speed of light
	      charge on an electron
	      acceleration of gravity
	      same as
	      Avogadro's number,
	      pressure head per unit height of water,
	      astronomical unit.

       Units must be provided in lowercase only.  is not recognized as a unit of mass; is.  Compound names are run together, (e.g., British  units
       that differ from their U.S. counterparts are prefixed thus: For a complete list of units, examine the file:

       An alternate unit database file can be specified for use with the option.  looks in this file rather than the default for the table of con-
       versions.  This must be in the same format as This is useful in defining your own units and conversions.

WARNINGS

       The monetary exchange rates are out of date.

FILES

																	  units(1)