Replication Station → Data collection

Unit Conversions

Why care about inches?

In the Imperial system of measurement, inches are usually divided into halves, which means base 2 for anything shorter 1 inch. 1/2", 1/4", 1/8", and 1/16" are commonly used measurements.
If you view the listings for block neodymium magnets from a supplier such as Magnet4less.com, Magnet4sale.com, or KJmagnetics.com, you can find out that magnet lengths, widths, and heights are in inches.
While the metric system is clearly more useful for scientific purposes, the base 2 system used for sub-inch imperial mesaurements is actually quite helpful for interlocking objects of different sizes together.

Useful

Logical

Strange

1 gallon (gal) = 2^2 quarts (qt) = 2^3 pints (pt) = 2^4 cups (C) = 2^7 fluid ounces (fl oz.) = 2^8 tablespoons (Tbps)
2000 Calories (kCal) = 2.324 kilowatt-hours (kWh)
100 Calories per 2 Tablespoons (kCal/Tbsp) = 3,930 watt-hours per liter (Wh/L)

Surprising

Energy of a neodymium magnet at 1.5 Tesla (T)
- (1.5 Tesla)^2/(2*4pi*10^-7 Henries per meter) * (1.639 * 10^-5 cubic meters) = 14.67 Newton-meters (Nm) in a cubic inch
- Conclusion: A cubic inch neomagnet, if depleted of its magnetic energy, could not even run a 15 watt light bulb for one second.
Energy of a AA Battery (7.7 mL) at 1.5 Volts (V) and 2000 milliamp-hours (mAh)
- (1.5 Volts * 7200 Coulombs) * (16.39 ml / 7.7 mL) = 22,990 Newton-meters (Nm) in a cubic inch (> 1,500x)
- Conclusion: The magnetic field energy of a magnet, if depleted, would yield less than 0.1% as much energy as a battery of the same size.
Energy of Peanut Butter at 100 Calories per 2 Tablespoons
- (3,930 Wh/L) * (3600 Nm/Wh) * (0.01639 L) = 231,900 Newton-meters (Nm) in a cubic inch (> 15,000x)
- Conclusion: Food sources of energy can be substantially more energy dense than typical battery tech.