International System of Units

Problems

practice

  1. Write something.
  2. Write something.
  3. Write something.
  4. Write something completely different.

conceptual

  1. Complete the following puns based on the SI prefixes.
    1. 1 millionth of a fish equals …
    2. 1 trillion pins equal …
    3. 10 rations equal …
    4. 10 cards equal …
    5. 10 millipedes equal …
    6. 1 quintillionth of a boy equals …
    7. 1 trillionth of a door equals …
    8. 1 trillion microphones equal …
    9. 1 million pains equal …
    10. 2000 mockingbirds equal …
    11. 1021 piccolos equal …
  2. As the saying goes, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". What Midwest American city (or West Coast suburb) is equivalent to a single step in a much shorter journey of only a thousand steps? (Hint: a journey of a thousand steps is best described as a walk.)
  3. According to Classical Greek legends, Helen (daughter of Leda, queen of Sparta, and Zeus) was the most beautiful woman in the world. When Helen reached marriageable age, all the greatest men in Greece courted her. Acting on the advice of Odysseus, Helen's stepfather got all the suitors to swear that they would support the marriage rights of the successful candidate. He then settled on Menelaus to be the husband of Helen. She lived happily with Menelaus for a number of years, and bore him a daughter, Hermione. After a decade or so of married life, Helen was abducted by (or ran off with) Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy. Menelaus called on the other suitors to fulfill their oaths and help him get her back. As a result, the Greek leaders mustered the greatest army of the time and set off to wage what became known as the Trojan War. The English dramatist Christopher Marlowe described Helen as having the "face that launched a thousand ships". Using the "Helen" as the standard of beauty, how beautiful would one have to be …
    1. to launch a single ship?
    2. to "launch" a car?

numerical

  1. Tom Duff at Bell Labs once pointed out that "π seconds is a nanocentury". Show that he was more or less correct.
  2. A computer science professor is reputed to have once said that his lectures lasted about a "microcentury". In ordinary language, approximately how long were this professor's lectures?

The Physics Hypertextbook

  • No condition is permanent.