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Whats the most unique engineering unit you've encountered? 5

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JGard1985

JGard1985

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Nov 5, 2015
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For fun, what is the most unique engineering unit you've encountered in your years?

Some considerations:
[ul]
[li]Name[/li]
[li]Units that mixing and matching english and metric[/li]
[li]Usefulness & practicality[/li]
[/ul]

My two first nominations:
[ul]
[li]KW/foot: A mix & match of english & metric, its used in the commercial nuclear power industry. The unit is a of measure of the amount of energy produced in metric, per linear foot of fuel rod. The calculation is important for evaluating the heat transfer capacity to the water in the reactor. Too much energy will result in fuel clad damage, compromising the integrity of the first fission barrier [/li]
[li]slinch: The slinch is an english unit of mass equal to 1 lbf*sec^2/in. (Think Weight divided by 386.6in/sec^2) In my opinion it has almost no practical application except for use in the mass input for english-unit based Finite Element Models.[/li]
[/ul]

Excited to hear your nominees

Jeff
Pipe Stress Analysis
Finite Element Analysis

 
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Horsepower:

Mechanical
Metric
French and Italian Tax
Electrical
Hydraulic
Boiler
Drawbar
RAC
Nominal
Indicated
Brake
Shaft
Wheel
SAE
SAE gross
SAE net
SAE certified
DIN 70020
CUNA
EEC
ISO
JIS D 1001
And it doesn't stop here.

Sourse: Wikipedia

"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future
 
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My father saw one of those Hopper lectures. Later, he sent me a copy of the article along with this yellow piece of wire (coax, actually). Not knowing the significance, I tossed the wire thinking it was simply him getting old and including random crap. It was years later that I figured it out, and I regret tossing that cable.

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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Cow's grass - the amount of land that can support a single cow
Hobo Power - a measure of stink from the radio show Loveline. Negative Hobo Power can cancel out positive Hobo Power.
 
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Reporting gas volumes is a major thing in Oil & Gas. I taught a class once in London with students from 8 countries. I asked "I know none of you are happy with standard cubic feet being used, but what do you use instead?" The answers were interesting:
[ul]
[li]e3m3 (10[sup]3[/sup] cubic meters) was used by some[/li]
[li](km)[sup]3[/sup] was reported by several[/li]
[li]SCM[/li]
[li]Nm3[/li]
[li]NCM[/li]
[li]GJ[/li]
[/ul]

I asked the class their definition of "standard" and "normal" and got into a muddle. The Australian approach of assuming that the gas is 948 BTU/SCF so 1 MSCF = 1 GJ was especially creative.

The Oil & Gas approach to use the "M" prefix for 1000 (the Roman Numeral "M"), and then instead of the Roman approach of MM being 2,000 it becomes 1,000,000 has always fascinated me.

I used to be involved in downhole tubular goods and it was very common to specify "600 m of 2-3/8 inch tubing".

I also like the UK speed limit signs in km/h with distance signage in miles (or is it vice versa, it has been a while).

[bold]David Simpson, PE[/bold]
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
 
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Blibbit: ten pounds of faeces in a five-pound bag. Origin: U.S. rural. Refers to anything filled to or beyond capacity.

Dik
 
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David, you got it right the first time: "I also like the UK speed limit signs in km/h with distance signage in miles..."

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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We added a units conversion to a program that prints calibrated flow test data tags, which is always a pain the a$$ when you consider sig. figs and rounding. But the customer wants what the customer wants...

So the programmer and I agreed to add our own units conversion - kBLqf, which is the abbreviation for kilo-buttloads per fortnight. Useful little unit, turns out to be about 6-1/4 gallons per minute.
 
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dik, known as a "blivet" around here...

I used to volunteer at a local festival. When building the dance floors we lay 2x6's flat and deck 'em with plywood. I'd explain to the crews we would space the 2x6's on 16 inch centers. I'd show them the 16 inch marks on a tape measure and say, "Now these tapes are marked so that even carpenters can find 16 inch centers."

So, I dunno, 16 inch equals one Stud? or two Studs?

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
 
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zdas04 said:
I also like the UK speed limit signs in km/h with distance signage in miles (or is it vice versa, it has been a while).
Click to expand...

That's odd - I'd like to think that if it was like that, I'd have noticed by now.

Speed limits are posted in (statute) miles per hour and distances to destinations and junctions are in (statute) miles. The only place I see km in regular use is on the small Driver Location Signs and associated Distance Marker Posts on the side of major roads (that nobody ever looks at unless they've broken down and need to explain to somebody where they are).

A.
 
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I wisht my garage ceiling joists were spaced at Stud or Stud-and-a-half when I was flooring it. They were spaced at approximately Stud-and-a-half. Some were 25 inch, some were 27 inch, no two exactly alike. It took a very detailed cut list to make it work with common lumber lengths :)

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
 
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Although they are very prevalent terms, I always thought a "chord" and "board feet" were unusual terms for units of wood.

Also.....a pony keg, in reference to a partial (1/2 or 1/4??) keg of beer
 
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