From b187ced51d84335ab15f55b5ea14a132c7c54829 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jakllsch Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 19:41:03 +0000 Subject: Per [1] the speed of light in a vaccum is exactly 299792458 m/s. Per [2] a furlong is 220 yards and a yard is exactly 0.9144 m. Per [3] a fortnight is 14 days. As I didn't find a good authority for what definition of a day a fortnight is measured in, I'll assume here a day is 86400 SI seconds. Thus, the speed of light in a vaccum is approximately 1.80*10^12 furlongs per fortnight. 1.80*10^12 = 299792458*86400*14/(220*0.9144) [1] Resolution 1 of the 17th meeting of the CGPM (1983) http://www.bipm.org/en/CGPM/db/17/1/ [2] Weights and Measures Act 1985 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72 [3] The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1964, p. 480 --- fortune/datfiles/fortunes | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'fortune/datfiles') diff --git a/fortune/datfiles/fortunes b/fortune/datfiles/fortunes index dc993590..2702bbae 100644 --- a/fortune/datfiles/fortunes +++ b/fortune/datfiles/fortunes @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Therefore, Alexander the Great had an infinite number of arms. (2) Nothing is always. (3) Everything is sometimes. % -1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight -- it's not just a good idea, it's +1.80 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight -- it's not just a good idea, it's the law! % 10.0 times 0.1 is hardly ever 1.0. -- cgit v1.2.3-56-ge451