APS News

December 2005 (Volume 14, Number 11)

Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science

Little Known Conversion Factors, Explained

 

1: the ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2: 2,000 lbs. of chinese soup = won ton

3: 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

4: the time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

5: the weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

6: the time it takes to sail 220 yards, at 1 nautical mile per hour = knotferlong

7: 365.25 days of drinking low calorie beer = 1 lite year

8: 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling

9: half a large intestine = 1 semicolon

10: 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz

11: basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower

12: shortest distance between two jokes = a straight line

13: 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake

14: 1 million microphones = 1 megaphone

15: 1 million bicycles = 1 megacycle

16: 365.25 days = 1 unicycle

17: 2,000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds

18: 10 cards = 1 decacard

19: 52 cards = 1 deckacard

20: 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig Newton

21: 1,000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen

22: 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche

23: 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin

24: 10 rations = 1 decaration

25: 100 rations = 1 C-ration

26: 2 monograms = 1 diagram

27: 8 nickels = 2 paradigms

28: 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at 
     Yale University Hospital = 1 I.V. league


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Editor: Alan Chodos
Associate Editor: Jennifer Ouellette
Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff

December 2005 (Volume 14, Number 11)

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Articles in this Issue
Baltimore to Host 2006 APS March Meeting
Conference Addresses Problems of Sustainable Development Worldwide
Three Undergraduates Receive APS Apker Awards
Plasma Turbulence, ELM Insights Highlight 2005 DPP Meeting
2006 Policy for Printed Bulletin
Achim Richter Replaces George Bertsch as Editor of Reviews of Modern Physics
Physicist Does Star Turn in TV Reality Show
Hopfield Receives Albert Einstein World Award of Science
Case Contest Seeks 27 Great 20th Century Physicists
Featured PhysTEC University: Arkansas Ramps Up Teacher Preparation
Science and Engineering are Hidden Stars in Stealth
Letters
Viewpoint
Inside the Beltway: Washington Analysis and Opinion
The Back Page
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science