tilt head 90 degrees
Okay this is old -- I've used it as a PizzaQ before -- and mathematically stoopid.
I was bored and uninspired. This has been a really bleak, punishing winter.
When a physics or engineering professor is trying to cram students' heads with different units of measurement -- metric, English -- and the techniques to convert from one set of units to another, this is a famous Nightmare Quiz:
Convert the Velocity of Light (in a vacuum) from Meters per Second to Furlongs per Fortnight.
A Furlong is a unit of length of interest to horse racing fans -- there are 8 furlongs to 1 mile.
A Fortnight is a unit of time (14 days, 2 weeks) from Shakespeare's amd Chaucer's day. It's not likely to pop up very often in physics textbooks.
But this is the 8-alarm algebra nightmare you have to drag your suffering brain through to get the right answer. Some students weep as they try to figure it out within 40 minutes.
If you get the right answer, no problem in unit conversions will ever frighten you again. You can figure out if gasoline at an Imperial Gallon or Liter pump is cheap or expensive. You can figure out if lox or smoked whitefish is a bargain or a sucker deal, in the Metric or Commonwealth world.
The number crunching was done on the wonderful (and free) Reverse Polish Notation desktop calculator from Norway, XCALC. (Well, it's free, but the guy would like you to send him some fresh spices, he's an amateur gourmet cook.) I don't see how you can possibly rule the Galaxy without XCALC.
