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- Newsgroups: sci.physics
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sunic!aun.uninett.no!news.uit.no!stud.cs.uit.no!alvin
- From: alvin@stud.cs.uit.no (Alvin Brattli)
- Subject: Re: Parsecs?
- Followup-To: sci.physics
- References: <1992Aug11.205655.6840@csi.on.ca> <1992Aug11.211445.6928@csi.on.ca> <MT87692.92Aug13163609@sotka.cs.tut.fi>
- Sender: news@news.uit.no (USENET News System)
- Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway
- Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 18:57:35 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Aug13.185735.5040@news.uit.no>
- Lines: 21
-
- In article <MT87692.92Aug13163609@sotka.cs.tut.fi>, mt87692@cs.tut.fi (Mikko Tsokkinen) writes:
- |> attoparsec: n. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for
- |> multiplication by 10^{-18}. A parsec (parallax-second) is
- |> 3.26 light-years; an attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^{-18} light
- |> years, or about 3.1 cm (thus, 1 attoparsec/{microfortnight}
- |> equals about 1 inch/sec). This unit is reported to be in use
- |> (though probably not very seriously) among hackers in the U.K. See
- |> {micro-}.
-
- This reminds me of a definition I found in _Physics Handbook_ by
- C. Nordling and J. Oesterman:
-
- "1 light-year = 9.46055e15 m. A corresponding unit, 1 beard-second = 1e-8 m,
- has been suggested for microscopic distances. One beard-second is the
- distance which a standard beard in a standard face grows in one second."
-
- --
- I've got two legs from my hips to the ground
- Alvin Brattli And when I move them they walk around
- alvin@stud.cs.uit.no And when I lift them they climb the stairs
- And when I shave them they ain't got hairs - T.Gilliam
-