The u
v (calc-enter-units-table) command displays
the units table in another buffer called *Units
Table*. Each entry in this table gives the unit name as it
would appear in an expression, the definition of the unit in
terms of simpler units, and a full name or description of the
unit. Fundamental units are defined as themselves; these are the
units produced by the u b command. The fundamental
units are meters, seconds, grams, kelvins, amperes, candelas,
moles, radians, and steradians.
The Units Table buffer also displays the Unit Prefix Table. Note that two prefixes, “kilo” and “hecto,” accept either upper- or lower-case prefix letters. ‘Meg’ is also accepted as a synonym for the ‘M’ prefix. Whenever a unit name can be interpreted as either a built-in name or a prefix followed by another built-in name, the former interpretation wins. For example, ‘2 pt’ means two pints, not two pico-tons.
The Units Table buffer, once created, is not rebuilt unless you define new units. To force the buffer to be rebuilt, give any numeric prefix argument to u v.
The u
V (calc-view-units-table) command is like
u v except that the cursor is not moved into the Units
Table buffer. You can type u V again to remove the
Units Table from the display. To return from the Units Table
buffer after a u v, type C-x * c again or
use the regular Emacs C-x o
(other-window) command. You can also kill the
buffer with C-x k if you wish; the actual units table
is safely stored inside the Calculator.
The u
g (calc-get-unit-definition) command retrieves
a unit's defining expression and pushes it onto the Calculator
stack. For example, u g in will produce the expression
‘2.54 cm’.
This is the same definition for the unit that would appear in the
Units Table buffer. Note that this command works only for actual
unit names; u g km will report that no such unit
exists, for example, because km is really the unit
m with a k (“kilo”) prefix.
To see a definition of a unit in terms of base units, it is
easier to push the unit name on the stack and then reduce it to
base units with u b.
The u e
(calc-explain-units) command displays an English
description of the units of the expression on the stack. For
example, for the expression ‘62
km^2 g / s^2 mol K’, the description is
“Square-Kilometer Gram per (Second-squared Mole
Degree-Kelvin).” This command uses the English descriptions
that appear in the righthand column of the Units Table.