From jws9c@mamba.cs.Virginia.EDU Sat Jan 13 18:33:28 2007 Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:33:27 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy W. Sheaffer To: suggestions@google.com Subject: Calculator "in America" Dear Google, I am writing to suggest what I feel would be a very useful improvement to Google Calculator. As an American, I feel that I should not have to know anything about the metric system. I like to use Google Calculator for conversions between the heinous metric units to their superior Imperial counterparts. Your tool is superb in this regard, though it is missing some important units, including the link, the rood, and the chaldron. The purpose of this email is not to suggest that these units be added, but rather something far more pressing and utilitarian. I, and I believe I speak for all Americans in this missive, would find it incredibly useful to be able to convert metric to Imperial units without having to understand the nature of the units in the conversion. I recently needed to know the Imperial equivalent of e to the i times pi Newtons, so I entered this conversion into Google: (e to the (i * pi)) newtons = -0.000340619611 (slug furlongs) per (second squared) but I don't believe that a true, red-blooded American should have to know that Newtons correspond with slug furlongs per second squared. A green-blooded Vulcan, certainly, but not a red-blooded American. I'm not a Vulcan. Perhaps a more universally useful conversion and a better example would be that of converting liters to gallons. Why should I, an American, need to understand that liters are a unit of volume to find out how much liquid is in my 2 liter bottle of coke (According to Google Calculator, it's 0.528344102 US gallons, fyi)? My proposed solution is an "America" conversion. For example, to find out how likely a 2 liter bottle of coke is to quench my thirst, I would simply enter "2 liters in America" into Google. With the current system, this gives me a link to www.porsche.com/usa/, which isn't even an American automobile manufacturer. Instead, this query should give exactly the same result as that for "2 liters in gallons." This kind of functionality would be especially useful for internationally collaborating scientists. With this tool, we would should lose far fewer expensive space probes. The functionality as I've described it would be imminently and immensely useful; however, it's usefulness could be further improved with a small addition. Take, for example, the force conversion described above. As an American, while I shouldn't *need* to know that Newtons convert to slug furlongs per second squared, of course I *do* know this--I certainly understand all of the intricacies of the Imperial system--so please don't give me output that treats me like I'm stupid. The output to the query "e to the i pi newtons in America" should simply be "-0.000340619611." I understand the rest. Similarly "2 liters in America" should simply print "0.528344102." It might even be best to convert to the nearest whole unit ("0" and "1", respectively, for these queries), as most real Americans aren't concerned with these small, left-over pieces (if we were, we would have some kind of garbage like milligallons instead of the far more useful, and decimal free, dram). Of course some (foreign) people might not understand these conversions as well as Americans, so an "America" conversion might also include a link, "simplify this conversion," which would give decimals and add units for those who might need them. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about this suggestion at jws9c@cs.virginia.edu. I look forward to taking advantage of this functionality in the near future. Very best regards, Jeremy W. Sheaffer -- Jeremy W. Sheaffer jws9c@cs.virginia.edu http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jws9c/ /********************************************* * The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, * * Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit * * Shall lure it back to cancel half a line * * Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. * * * * -Omar Khayyam * *********************************************/