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

[JGard1985]

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

http://www.xceed-eng.com

 

[dgallup]

That's always been my favorite. Read all the way through to the last post thinking "Nobodies mentioned the miner's inch yet!".

So here's some other obscure units that can vary locally:

pony - small unit of liquor, in the US generally 1 US fluid ounce

rick - a stack of split firewood 4'high x 8' long by a "standardized length" usually 16". 1/3 cord or 1.2 steres. However, because the size of a rick has been manipulated by vendors, it is illegal to sell firewood by the rick in several US states.

rood - in some cases another word for a rod (16.5 feet) but in old England or Scotland sometimes it was 20 feet, 21 feet or even 24 feet.

And of course the ubiquitous barrel which depends on what you put in it. In the US a beer barrel is 31.5 gallons but in the UK it is 36 imperial gallons. An older British barrel equal to 1/2 hogshead is 26.25 imperial gallons. There are other official barrels defined in certain states that range from 30-40 gallons. Meanwhile, a barrel of petroleum is 42 US gallons around the world but a US dry barrel is 105 dry quarts unless it is a measure of weight in which case it again varies by contents. A barrel of flour holds 196 lbs, beef, fish and pork 200 pounds and cement 376 pounds.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[waross]

Has anyone mentioned the Unit yet?
Back in the days when sawdust was burned to heat houses, a unit of sawdust was a common measure. 1 unit = 200 cubic feet.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[HamburgerHelper]

When my family used to go on long bike rides in minnesota, my family had a unit of measurement called a green mile.

How long was your bike ride?

A green mile.

How long is a green mile?

About 3 Hours not including credits.

 

[waross]

In that vein:
True story.
I was waiting for a train and the station agent came out to the waiting room and announced;
"I'm sorry, the train will be late. It was held up by a henway on the tracks."
"What's a henway?"
"Four or five pounds."


Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[CheckerHater]

Here is another beauty: "biyearly" apparently means both "twice a year" and "every two years"

Change your oil biyearly.

"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future

 

[SandCounter]

I've seen kg/in^2 in requests for proposals. It is intended as a pressure.



I used to count sand. Now I don't count at all.

 

[drawoh]

I've seen kg/in^2 in requests for proposals. It is intended as a pressure.

Anathema! Kill it with fire

Given that kilograms are a unit of mass, not force, I am having a hard time visualizing mass per unit area. The time comes when you must stare blankly and stupidly at people, and ask them what it is they mean.

--
JHG

 

[dik]

dgallup... you missed the Firkin... 9 gallons... and has different meanings depending on what you are storing...

I checked with wiki to see if 9 gallons was Imperial and found that a firkin for butter or cheese is 25 kg...

Dik

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Well that's just firkin crazy!

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com