# standards and units
about canonical physical, temporal, linguistic, and mathematical representations that reduce reasoning and conversion complexity. part of [representational reasoning](/computer/guides/more/simplicity.html).

## units and standards

### temperature
fahrenheit (celsius °c), rankine (kelvin × 1.8)

### liter
fluid ounce (30 ml), cup (250 ml), pint (500 ml), quart (1 l), gallon (us) (4 l), gallon (uk) (5 l), barrel (100 l)

### gram
ounce (28 g), pound (0.5 kg), stone (6 kg), ton (1 mg), slug (14.5939 kg)

### meter
inch (2.5 cm), foot (30 cm), yard (1 m), mile (1.6 km), nautical mile (2 km), astronomical unit (150 gm), light year (9 pm), parsec (31 pm), ångström (1×10⁻¹⁰ m)

### second
minute (60 s), hour (100 s), foot per second (0.3048 m/s)

### joule
kilocalorie (0.0042 mj), calorie (4.184 j), erg (1×10⁻⁷ j), foot-pound (1.4 j), foot-pound-force (1.3558 j), btu (1 kj)

### newton
dyne (1×10⁻⁵ n), pound-force (4.448 n)

### bit
octet (8 bits), megabyte (8×10⁶ bits), terabyte (8×10¹² bits), mebibit (1,048,576 bits), kibibyte (8192 bits)

### pascal
psi (7 kpa), atm (100 kpa), mmhg (133 pa), inch of mercury (3.386 kpa), torr (133.322 pa), psig (6.895 kpa gauge), bar (100 kpa), atmosphere technical (98.0665 kpa)

### watt
horsepower (750 w), btu per hour (0.293 w)

### m²
acre (4000 m²), hectare (10,000 m²)

### km/ks
km/h (0.278 km/ks), mph (0.45 km/ks), knot (0.5 km/ks)

### time
minute (60 s), hour (3.6 ks), day (86.4 ks), week (604.8 ks), month (~2.592 megaseconds), year (~31.5 megaseconds)

### misc
fahrenheit delta (kelvin), gallon per mile (l/100 km), ppi (points per inch)

### principles
* base conversions on si multiples (kilo-, mega-, giga-)
* decimal approximations are sufficient for everyday use
* nested units complicate dimensional analysis; convert to single-unit expressions

### planck units
planck units are defined using only the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the reduced planck constant, and the boltzmann constant.

## time systems
* abolish daylight saving time: the switching causes psychosomatic distress and accidents, with no strong benefit. it does not "create" more time. most people would not voluntarily get up an hour earlier in summer, yet refusing the change is impractical since all timetables and schedules adjust as a whole.
* use negative years instead of specifying bce. if someone writes 1996, we assume it means the common era. if someone writes year -1996, we assume it is before an era, and by analogy to positive years, it should be understood as part of the same timeline.
  * including a year 0 simplifies arithmetic. astronomical year numbering with year 0 makes year differences direct and maps years bijectively to integers.
  * `negative_year = 1 - bce_year` because bce counts from 1, astronomical counts from 0.
* use only an epoch, seconds, and si units. example: `1757674897 = 1 gs, 757 Ms, 674 ks, 8 hs, 97 s.`
* lowercase-only si prefixes and units. example:

```
prefixes = %w[p n mi m c d da h k me g t pe e z y ro qu]
units = %w[m g s a k mol cd hz n pa j w c v f ohm wb t h lm lx bq gy sv kat rad sr]
combinations = prefixes.product(units).map { |pre, unit| pre + unit }
puts combinations.join ", "
```

## language
* share languages more widely instead of maintaining hundreds of small-area languages. language barriers reduce access to knowledge, weaken understanding, and limit mobility. learning a language to near-native fluency can take a decade; without it, communication is far from what natives achieve.
* cultural separation example: the internet forms language bubbles. searching arabic text returns mostly arabic-only sites. popular platforms are replicated within each language group, reducing cross-cultural exchange and innovation.
* fear of cultural loss is overstated; shared languages can coexist with local dialects.
* risks: harmful memes might spread faster, but responses would also be more effective.
* benefits: end of language barrier, fewer school subjects, better politics, no subtitles, improved collaboration, faster research, more efficient information diffusion.

### specific proposals
* develop logical, unambiguous languages; word synthesis is important (e.g., attempto controlled english, lojban)
* reduce character sets, remove uppercase ("vanity casing"); any ambiguity can be avoided easily by other means
* create scripts with visually more distinct characters for faster recognition; some latin letters may be unnecessary

## mathematics notation
* current mathematical notation is optimized for blackboards, with many opaque symbolic "paintings" that are hard to learn and not computer-friendly
* use ascii-based notation
* use non-serif fonts for clarity
* use english variable names
* prefer notation that is readable both by humans and machines

see also [simplified mathematical notation](/textual/more/mathematics/simple-math-notation.html)