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HP Forum Archive 16

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HP unit conversion vs. Google's ! :-)
Message #1 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 25 July 2006, 9:33 a.m.

Hi all,

    As many of you are fully aware, a number of advanced HP calcs do have some kind of unit conversion feature built-in or it might be available in a plug-in ROM or other media.

    You may also be aware that Google has a built-in "calculator" which, among many interesting and advanced things, manages to do unit conversions as well. For instance, if you enter this "search" in Google: 

            convert 1 byte to bits
    as soon as you press [Enter], it will promptly display: 
               1 byte = 8 bits
    which is perfectly correct. Now, focusing in conversion from higher-order units of RAM (say bytes, etc) to bits, there are some really weird conversions that Google manages to correctly perform, despite the strange quantities being specified.

    For instance, this works !: 

            convert 999.9999999 billion trillion googol googol exabytes to bits  [Enter]
    
           999.9999999 billion trillion googol googol exabytes = 9.22337204 × 10^242 bits
    I wonder if some HP model or available software can do this particular conversion, more or less as written ? Obviously it is not that difficult to write some program which would do it, the question is if it can be done right out-of-the-box or using already existing software.
Best regards from V.
      
Re: HP unit conversion vs. Google's ! :-)
Message #2 Posted by Dia C. Tran on 25 July 2006, 12:16 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Valentin Albillo

I am sure not out of the box. As for add on software I don't know. I guess not but just may be.

      
Re: HP unit conversion vs. Google's ! :-)
Message #3 Posted by John Limpert on 26 July 2006, 5:49 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Valentin Albillo

It isn't "perfectly correct". A byte is usually, but not always, 8 bits. The correct terminology for an 8-bit byte is octet.

            
Re: HP unit conversion vs. Google's ! :-)
Message #4 Posted by Arnaud Amiel on 26 July 2006, 6:24 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by John Limpert

Quote:
It isn't "perfectly correct". A byte is usually, but not always, 8 bits. The correct terminology for an 8-bit byte is octet.

Funny that in French we don't have such a word as byte (as far as I know), we only have octet.

I was very confused when I went to university in the UK as byte and bit sound so similar (for a French person they read the same) and are yet so different.

Arnaud

      
Re: HP unit conversion vs. Google's ! :-)
Message #5 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 1 Aug 2006, 10:05 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Valentin Albillo

There is a shorter notation: 

1 byte in bits
works fine.

Or, for our American friends: 

1 lightyear in inches

;-)

Marcus

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