In a message dated 07-27-96, Bill Cheek said to Eric Schilke:
BC> Yo! Eric:
Yo! Bill:
BC> I think I misstated the energy/time relationships, though....
Yup.  You said:
 BC>> .... Now one joule per second equals 1-watt....
And I say:
 ES> Where I went to school, one watt per second equals one joule.
The two are vastly different.  Just to be sure my memory wasn't at
fault, I just now checked the reference closest to hand, Sams
"Reference Data for Engineers," 1993, which confirms my assertion.
BC> .... not sure if it was a typo or my head screwed on backwards.
Both happen to me more than enough. 
I'm particularly sensitive to having dimensions right since I once
blew a perfect score on a final exam by appending t^1 rather than t^-1
to a result, which is similar to what has happened here.
BC> You rounded off to 9 x 10^13 but that's good enough for government
BC> work, I guess.
Well, you stated 8.987554x10^13; however, it depends on the value of C
that one plugs in; two references here agree on 299792458 meters/
second.  Using that, the conversion factor is 8.987551787x10^13.
For the purposes of discussion, 9x10^13 saves a bit of typing.  It
corresponds to the quick and dirty, commonly used BOE (back-of-the-
envelope) value of C, 300000000 meters/second.
I don't know what's good enough for government work these days.  I no
longer work for that bunch (ASA for several years, then moved on to,
uhh..., other military things), and verily, I distrust our present
government more than you and Cravens combined.
Remember, some government idiot once tried to enact a law declaring pi
equals 3.  Good enough for government work, I guess. 
Regards, =>EricS
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  MR/2  Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows....
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