Introduction Although this program is shareware, it is copyrighted and may be used only by registered users. See the end of this file for registration information. Metrology is the science of measurement. All of us, no matter what our profession, are daily engaged in taking the measure of things. Measurement in modern life is so common that often we are scarcely aware of it. On cold, or hot days we check the temperature, when we drive we check our speed, when we cook we measure the volume of ingredients, when we dine we are concerned with the quantity of fats or calories in our food, when we exercise we check our heart rate and from morning to night we check the clock. We are also often the subject of measurement. When we drive our speed is sometimes checked by others. During a physical our weight, blood pressure and cholesterol are measured. Our body dimensions are sometimes important when we purchase new clothes, always when we purchase shoes. And each year the Government maintains a watchful eye on the precision with which we conduct our financial affairs. Many of our measurements are relatively straightforward and do not require us to make conversions. Calculations involving money are usually simple: addition is most gratifying, but subtraction often rules. We usually only need to be sure that our driving speed is not very much greater than that posted. Often, however, the values that we need are not quite as easily obtained. What if the temperature is given in degrees Celsius and we want to know the value in degrees Fahrenheit? What if we want to know the value in kilometers of 45 miles per hour? How many cubic yards of fill is there in a 20,000 pound load of gravel? How many 1hr. 39min. 57sec. operations can we fully complete in 72 hours? These problems either require conversions or, as in the case of time, are made easier by using conversions. Metrology is a Windows program that allows the user to convert values between different units. The program contains thousands of conversions. For some units such as length, area, volume and weight (mass), both modern and historical units are given. Many of the units were or still are common to certain local geographic or political areas of the world. Since 1960, the SI or System International des Units has become the standard for weights and measures in most parts of the world. Although the U.S. has yet to popularly convert to the metric system, it is used here by the scientific community, and by those who find it necessary or convenient to efficiently communicate values to the rest of the world. The units of the SI system are as follows: Length: meter Mass: kilogram Time: second Frequency: hertz Force: newton Energy: joule Power: watt Charge: coulomb Potential: volt Resistance: ohm Capacitance: farad Magnetic Flux: weber Inductance: henry Flux Density: tesla Luminosity: candella and lux Using Metrology Window Layout: Metrology has a single main window. The main window contains three drop down list boxes. The list boxes allow the user to choose a category and two units selections. There are also two value boxes where the user can input the value which is to be converted. The main window is functionally divided by the arrow and equal buttons into left and right halves. Each half of the window is used to represent the value of each unit. The window may conveniently be thought of as an equation where one side must always equal the other side: the value of one unit must equal the value of the other unit. The bottom of the main window contains two text boxes in which comments about the currently selected units are displayed. There is also a settings window which displays the current program settings such as the fraction round off precision, number of displayed decimal places and whether auto calc is enabled. Using Metrology: Metrology is very simple to use. Choose a category from the Category list box, such as Length, Area, Volume, etc., select units from those available in the two Units list boxes, then input a value in the Value text box and click the Equal button. The value of the conversion is displayed in the other Value text box. The arrow determines whether the calculation proceeds from left to right or from right to left. For some categories button bars on the left and right side of the window are available for commonly used units. Because of the large size of the database a search routine is implemented that allows the user to search through units and comments for occurrences of a user-input series of characters. Citations are available for all of the data items, along with the precision of that item as stored in the database. The user is therefore able to know what sort of precision is available from a particular calculation. Category List Box: Use the Category drop down list box to select from the available categories. A category is a grouping of like units. For example, feet, meters, yards and nautical miles would all be found in the length Category, while pounds and kilograms would be in the Mass category. The currently selected category limits the choice of units that are displayed in the units window. Only those units that have acceptable conversions will be available. If you are not sure where to find a particular unit, use the search function in the Utilities menu. Units List Boxes: Use these drop down list boxes to select the "convert from" and "convert to" units. Only common units forming a particular category will be available. For example, feet and meters would be available, but feet and square feet would not, because there is no direct conversion between them. If Auto Calc is on and a value exists in the value window at the tail of the arrow, selecting new units will automatically cause a new calculated value to appear in the opposite value window. Value Edit Boxes: The two value edit boxes accept numerical input from the user. Typically the user types a value in one edit box, the one at the tail of the arrow, then clicks the Equal button. A new value for the other value box is calculated based on the value input by the user and the two currently selected units. Numbers may be input in several different formats such as decimal, scientific, fractions and degrees-minutes-seconds, or hours-minutes-seconds. Results can be displayed either as decimals or fractions. Large numbers may be input using comma thousands separators. Thousands separators are also available in output (Number Format, Format Menu). Arrow: The arrow controls the direction of the calculation. When the arrow points to the right the value on the left is held and new values are calculated and displayed on the right. When the arrow points left, the value on the right is held and new values are calculated and displayed on the left. To change the direction of the arrow, click on it with the left mouse button. Equal Button: The equal button is between the two units list boxes. Clicking on this button causes the calculation to be made. If auto calc is enabled calculations are made automatically when the user chooses a new unit value in either units list box. Button Bars: The buttons are a convenient alternative to using the units list box for commonly used units. Clicking on one of the buttons updates the units entry in the left or right units list box. If auto calc is enabled a new conversion result will be computed. Notes on the Database Ancient and imprecise Units: The database contains a large number of unit values and notes or comments on these units. Many of the units are ancient and some of the values may not be known precisely. Often, certain units varied locally; and their actual values were different at different locations or times. When a range of values exists for a particular unit this range is listed in the comments window, for example: {34}-56. The value enclosed by curly braces is the value used by the program for conversion. Angles and Time: When the current category is Angles, and the current units are DDD MM SS angles may be input as degrees, minutes and seconds. The format is DDD MM SS where a single space separates each number field . If the value of a number field is zero the number of characters in that field can be reduced to a single digit. For example the angle 00 00 29 ( 0 degrees, 0 minutes, 29 seconds ) can be typed 0 0 29. For output values to be displayed in Degrees, Minutes and seconds select the output category "DDD MM SS". To convert from Degrees, Minutes and seconds to decimal degrees, or vice versa, choose DDD MM SS on one side and Decimal Degrees on the other. These rules also apply to Hours Minutes Seconds. Angles have commonly been measured in the sexagesimal system which had its origins in ancient Babylonia. This system uses as its base the number 60. Common examples in everyday use are time, measured in hours, minutes (60/hr.) and seconds (60/minute); and angles measured as degrees (360/full circle), minutes (60/degree) and seconds (60/minute). Substances: The density menu lists substances in addition to the conventional units. These substances are listed so that information regarding the substance specific gravity and the density value can be calculated. The density of a particular substance can be calculated by selecting the substance in the left units window and selecting the required mass-volume units in the right window. With the calculation arrow pointing right, a value of 1 in the left value window will calculate the unit density in the right value window. For example, if Water is the substance and the units on the right are pounds/foot^3 (pounds per cubic foot), a 1 in the left value window will give a result of 62.4 pounds/foot^3 in the right value window. If a value of 2 in the left value window is used, the displayed result would be 124.8. This means "2 cubic feet of water weigh 124.8 pounds". Conversions between any two substances will yield meaningless results. Although given sufficient energy it is possible to convert snow to water, conversions from other units such as from lead to gold are at present beyond the capabilities of this program (perhaps in a later release). The results from such a conversion yield the relative densities between the selected units. Main Menu File Menu Info: Two separate items of information are displayed: Source: Use this command to display the source of the data (citation) for particular a unit. Significant digits: The number of significant digits of the unit item that are available in the database is also displayed. The number of significant digits can give the user some idea of the accuracy to which a certain value is known. For example, many of the ancient units have only a few significant digits, reflecting a relatively high uncertainty in the known value. For metric units in particular, the number of significant digits is meaningless because these items are stored in the database as orders of magnitude, i.e., 1e10 or 1e15. In this case, the displayed significant digits would only be 1, but the available precision would be limited only by the conversion value input by the user, or by the 2nd unit. Print: Prints the log of conversion results. Using this command causes the entire log to be printed. To print selected conversion results use the print command in the Result Log window (View menu). In order to accumulate conversion results, the Log Results menu item (Utility menu) must be checked. Exit: This command exits the metrology program. The window state (minimized, maximized) and window size and position are saved between sessions. Conversion or search results are not saved. Utility Menu Copy: Use this command to copy selected data onto the clipboard. The format of the information that is copied to the clipboard is selected using the Copy Format command (Edit menu). Copying data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there. Copy Format: Use this command to set the format for copying data to the clipboard. Three selections are available: Formatted Output: Copies a formatted string with the unit names and values. Example: 1 Foot = 12 Inches. Left Value Only: Copies only the value from the left value box. The name of the unit is not copied. Use this selection if you are only interested in inserting the numerical value into your document. Right Value Only: Same as Left Value Only, but copies from the right value box. Search: Use this command to search through the database for a user-input series of characters. It is possible to search through all categories or just a single category. Searching through comments allows the user to find such items as units that are particular to some country. Double clicking on a line in the search results list box will call up those units in the Metrology main window. The Search Dialog contains several elements defined as follows: Update: Left Right: This selection specifies which side of the Metrology main window is updated when the user double clicks an item in the list of found items. Collapse Window: Reduces the size of the window to display only the list of found items. Clicking on this button a second time will restore the normal window. Categories to Search: The categories of units contained in the database are displayed in this list box. You may choose to search through all categories or through a single category. For example the unit "Meter" occurs in the categories "Length", "Area" (sq. meter) and "Volume" (cu. meter). If you are only interested in finding occurrences of Meter in the Volume category, you can narrow the search by clicking on "Volume" in the list box. Search: You may elect to search through Units only, Comments only or Both. For example, if you are interested in finding all occurrences of the unit "Cubit" you would select "Units". If you want to find all of the units, whatever they are, that are particular to Greece, you could search through comments using "GREECE" as a search string. If you were interested in finding all references to "Gills" you would search both units and Comments. In this case you would find in a comment on the unit "Pint" that in Great Britain a pint contains 4 Gills. Search For: This is where you input a series of characters (search string) to search for. Searches are not case sensitive. Because of the large size of the database short search strings such as "SE" can produce a large number of results, especially when searching through comments (Se is a Japanese measure of area ). Search Button: Clicking on this button initiates the search. By changing the search string and clicking search again, search results will accumulate in the result list box. Clear: Clicking on this button clears the results from the result list box. Done: Closes the search dialog and returns to the main window. Closing the search dialog will cause the search results to be lost. If it is likely that the search results will be continuously referred to during the Metrology session, the search dialog can be minimized by clicking on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the window. This will reduce the dialog to an icon and reduce the window clutter. The search results will be available when the window is restored to its normal state. Search Results List Box: This is where the results of the search are displayed. If more items were found than can be displayed, use the scroll bars to move through the list. Double clicking on any line will call up the data in the Metrology main window where it can be used for calculation. If the update will cause the current category to be changed, the user will be notified before the update is made. If auto calc is on the update will cause a new result to be calculated. Number of Items Found: The total number of found items is displayed in the window heading. Log Results: When this item is checked a log of all conversion results is accumulated. Each time a new conversion is calculated it will be added to the log. Clicking on this menu item will alternately check and uncheck it. Items in the log are preserved even when the menu item is deselected so that rechecking Log Results will cause new conversions to be appended to the existing log results. The log results list may be viewed or cleared in the Result Log dialog (View menu). Auto Calc: When this item is checked conversion results will be calculated automatically whenever a new units item is selected, or when a search result is double clicked. New results are always displayed in the Value Window at the head of the arrow. Format Menu Number: Use this command to select the number of digits displayed after the decimal point and whether to use Fixed or Scientific notation. The number of decimal places operates in both fixed and scientific notation. The format always applies to both the left and right value windows, unless overridden by special formatting such as Radix or degrees-minutes-seconds etc. If the use commas check box is checked, thousands separators will be inserted in numbers having a value greater than 999.9. Commas may be input at any time. Fraction: Use this command to select the round off precision of fractions, specify a fixed denominator or let the program calculate a denominator. Decimal or fractional output can also be selected. Select Fractional Precision: The fractional precision is selectable from 1/4 to 1/256 or from 1/3 to 1/6. Calculated values are rounded off to the nearest fraction based on the current selection. For example, if 1/8 is the currently selected precision and a conversion results in the value 0.21, the displayed result would be 1/4 (Because: 1/8 = 0.125 and 1/4 = 0.250 and 0.21 is closest to 0.25 or 1/4). X/Y: This selection allows the program to calculate the fraction's denominator. The nearest denominator is calculated using the specified precision. The value of "Precision" can be any integer between 10 and 1,000,000. This value determines largest magnitude of the denominator. The denominator is rounded off to the nearest integer value of "Precision". The larger the values (high precision), the longer it will take the program to calculate the fraction. X/{ }: This selection allows the user to specify a specific value for the denominator. Any integer between 1 and 10,000 may be used. Output Decimal or Fraction: Selecting the Fraction button displays results formatted as fractions and selecting decimal displays results as decimals The displayed result is rounded off according the Fractional Precision selection. With few exceptions (such as degrees minutes seconds etc.) values can be input as either decimal or fractional. This command does not effect input. The program is able to determine whether decimals or fractions are input. Input: To input values as fractions use the forward slash to separate the numerator and denominator. For example: 0.25 would be input as 1/4. Integers and fractions may also be input. The integer and fractional portion must be separated by a single space. For example: 367.75 would be input as 367 3/4. Mixed units may not be input. For example if feet were the current units selection, 12 feet 1/2 inch cannot be represented by 12 1/2 as this would be interpreted as 12 and one half feet. Toolbar: Use this command to display and hide the Toolbar, which includes buttons for some of the most common commands in Metrology, such as Exit. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Toolbar is displayed. The toolbar provides quick mouse access to many tools used in Metrology. Status Bar: Use this command to display and hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed. To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the View menu. The left area of the status bar describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus. This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them. If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button. Left and Right Button Bars: Shows or hides the left or right button bars. When this menu item is checked the button bar automatically appears when certain categories have been selected. The buttons are a convenient alternative to using the units list box for commonly used units. Clicking on one of the buttons updates the units entry in the left or right units list box. If auto calc is enabled a new conversion result will be computed. Button bars are only available for common categories. Result Log: Selecting this item displays the result log dialog. This dialog displays the list of conversion results. In order to accumulate conversion results the Log Results menu item (Utility menu) must have been checked. Print Button: The user has the option of printing the entire log or selected items in the log. In order to select a continuous series of items, select the first item using a single click of the left mouse button, hold down the shift key and click on the last item. All of the items between the first and last clicks will be selected. To select non-continuous items, hold down the control key and click on each item to be selected. When the print button is pressed the user will be asked if the entire list or only selected items are to be printed. OK & Clear: OK closes the dialog. Closing the dialog does not affect the status of the log. Log results will be preserved until the result log is cleared using the clear button. Files included on the distribution disk. METRO.EXE The Metrology program. METRO.HLP The Metrology help file. METRO.BIN The data file used by Metro. INSTALL.EXE The installation program. README.TXT This file. ----------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION INFORMATION Although this program is shareware, it is copyrighted and may be used only by registered users. The cost of registration is $20.00 U.S. Use of the information provided by the program is at the risk of the user and no warranty is stated or implied. To register the program, please fill out the following form and send $20.00 to: ----------------------------------------------------------------- METROLOGY PROGRAM ORDER FORM Name __________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________________________ City _______________________________ State____ Zip___________ Free Software Manual included with registration. Metrology Registration $20.00 Send to: Metrology P.O. Box N147 Westport, MA 02790 (508-636-6883) -----------------------------------------------------------------