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Can an email go 500 miles in 2025?

(flak.tedunangst.com)
303 points zdw | 1 comments | 04 Jul 25 16:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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robin_reala ◴[08 Jul 25 14:02 UTC] No.44500076[source]▶
If you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000 and haven’t heard the original 500-mile email story, you can read it at https://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles.

(discussed previously on HN 5 years ago – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23775404 – and 10 years ago – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9338708)

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jeffhuys ◴[08 Jul 25 14:48 UTC] No.44500505[source]▶

   > units
   751 units, 62 prefixes
   You have: 10 miles
   You want: meters
    * 16093.44
    / 6.2137119e-05
Huh. Never knew that was a thing!
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bqmjjx0kac ◴[08 Jul 25 14:59 UTC] No.44500625[source]▶
I always want to reach for `units`, but I'm perennially baffled by the output! What's up with the * and /?
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1. barnas2 ◴[08 Jul 25 15:10 UTC] No.44500752[source]▶
the * is denoting the conversion from your first unit to your second, the / denotes the other way.

You have: 1 miles You want: feet * 5280 / 0.00018939394

In the above example, 1 mile is 5280 feet, and 1 foot is 0.00018939394 miles

If I do 2 miles to feet, the values are doubled (or halved for the reverse conversion)

You have: 2 miles You want: feet * 10560 / 9.469697e-05