Has Google gone MAD?

Posted on 12 January, 2008 by maximinus

... or are they simply honoring Donald Knuth's 70th birthday (which was on the 10th of January) in a cool and somewhat quirky manner?

Google Calculator can now perform calculations in Donald Knuth's units of length, volume and mass - the Potrzebie System, as defined in MAD Magazine issue #33. (Thanks to Jeff Atwood for making the relevant pages available online via his blog, Coding Horror!)

Some samples of calculations in the Potrzebie System and some conversions to SI units:
pi potrzebie in mm
1 dekapotrzebie * 2.3 dekapotrzebie * 3.2 dekapotrzebie in ngogn
e * 42 farshimmelt blintz
1 furshlugginer ngogn in litres
pi hectopotrzebie per hour in furlongs per fortnight

Try it yourself, have some fun... and ponder over what other units Google may add in the future...

Update: Sorry folks, wasn't expecting quite so much load all at once; I've made some server config tweaks which should hopefully speed things up a bit.

Comment by reptilicus, Sunday 13th of January 2008 08:19:46 AM [Reply]

You, sir, are a NYERD.

Comment by maximinus, Sunday 13th of January 2008 12:58:58 PM [Reply]

I am *not* a New York Esophageal Reflux Disease!

Comment by iYAAPeGgFP, Sunday 5th of September 2010 08:39:44 PM [Reply]

What?,http://cre.ations.net/creator/kimkardashiansextape kim kardashian sex tape free, 7677,

Comment by gSMuBxWJdYuKZMUQ, Sunday 5th of September 2010 09:36:35 PM [Reply]

I like your work!,http://cre.ations.net/creator/kimkardashiansextape kim kardashian sex tape free, 607829,

Comment by Nate, Sunday 13th of January 2008 09:02:58 AM [Reply]

shrunklink was a bad idea. the thing is taking like 20 seconds to load each link.

Post a reply:

Comment by maximinus, Sunday 13th of January 2008 12:41:37 PM [Reply]

That's odd - it should be pretty much instant. I used shrunklinks so that I could do some basic tracking - I haven't implemented outgoing link tracking in the blog system, and I wanted to be able to see how many people were going to each link.

Comment by luWKcelO, Friday 3rd of September 2010 01:33:06 AM [Reply]

fQnCinfo [urlhttp://www.ltaadventure.com/]Valium online[/url]

Comment by spiritbaby, Sunday 13th of January 2008 10:30:55 AM [Reply]

everyone is mad

Comment by Bob Holness, Sunday 13th of January 2008 11:09:07 AM [Reply]

I'm not, I'm quite chilled.

Comment by alphachapmtl, Sunday 13th of January 2008 02:18:12 PM [Reply]

all that is useless

Comment by minimus, Monday 14th of January 2008 04:25:13 AM [Reply]

For those familiar with MIT history, the length of the Harvard Bridge in Boston is measured in Smoots (364.4) and is recognized by Google Calculator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot

Comment by fMJoeHvvsgCBdakD, Sunday 5th of September 2010 09:00:23 PM [Reply]

Best Wishes!,http://cre.ations.net/creator/kimkardashiansextape kim kardashian sex tape, 446176,

Comment by iceic, Saturday 12th of January 2008 06:56:27 PM [Reply]

Awesome :D Thanks

Comment by WeaseL, Sunday 13th of January 2008 12:10:42 AM [Reply]

hmm, very interesting ! thanks for the link :)

Comment by guess watches, Thursday 2nd of September 2010 12:11:50 PM [Reply]

http://www.watchsever.com/ replica watch

Comment by cartier watches, Thursday 2nd of September 2010 02:35:16 PM [Reply]

http://www.anymine.com/, replica watch

Comment by qqyLDtgCG, Sunday 5th of September 2010 08:39:42 PM [Reply]

Nise site,http://cre.ations.net/creator/kimkardashiansextape kim kardashian sex tape, pdrzky,

Comment by fwqvorhw, Monday 6th of September 2010 04:24:40 AM [Reply]

hhzeeremahexdzhchjdv,http://www.vpguutwmaa.com hpxdbmvwed

Comment by nHGJnEjTvXCawr, Monday 6th of September 2010 08:11:32 PM [Reply]

This site is crazy :)

Comment by nHGJnEjTvXCawr, Monday 6th of September 2010 08:11:35 PM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by nHGJnEjTvXCawr, Monday 6th of September 2010 08:11:39 PM [Reply]

Wonderfull great site

Comment by oxjGHwsVe, Monday 6th of September 2010 11:07:08 PM [Reply]

Hello good day

Comment by oxjGHwsVe, Monday 6th of September 2010 11:07:11 PM [Reply]

Good crew it's cool :)

Comment by oxjGHwsVe, Monday 6th of September 2010 11:07:13 PM [Reply]

perfect design thanks

Comment by aokbTgDJed, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 02:04:11 AM [Reply]

Punk not dead

Comment by aokbTgDJed, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 02:04:19 AM [Reply]

Very Good Site

Comment by aokbTgDJed, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 02:04:25 AM [Reply]

this post is fantastic

Comment by iryylgeQBehheT, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:59:03 AM [Reply]

Very interesting tale

Comment by iryylgeQBehheT, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:59:30 AM [Reply]

I'm happy very good site

Comment by iryylgeQBehheT, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:59:39 AM [Reply]

Good crew it's cool :)

Comment by nwnffZUIJkIVwZwV, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:55:08 AM [Reply]

Comment by nwnffZUIJkIVwZwV, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:55:11 AM [Reply]

Gloomy tales

Comment by nwnffZUIJkIVwZwV, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:55:19 AM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by QpuleaZYPfykhh, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:45:11 AM [Reply]

very best job

Comment by QpuleaZYPfykhh, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:45:17 AM [Reply]

perfect design thanks

Comment by QpuleaZYPfykhh, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:45:21 AM [Reply]

Best Site good looking

Comment by DLeCzvTiNlpnOcQQwao, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 01:37:26 PM [Reply]

Punk not dead

Comment by DLeCzvTiNlpnOcQQwao, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 01:37:52 PM [Reply]

Best Site good looking

Comment by DLeCzvTiNlpnOcQQwao, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 01:38:32 PM [Reply]

Very funny pictures

Comment by wOdYMCXpBYnZDTqpP, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:28:33 PM [Reply]

It's funny goodluck

Comment by wOdYMCXpBYnZDTqpP, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:28:47 PM [Reply]

this is be cool 8)

Comment by wOdYMCXpBYnZDTqpP, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 04:28:49 PM [Reply]

Punk not dead

Comment by AEGDBVtnNyDKhoFuJS, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:20:37 PM [Reply]

Jonny was here

Comment by AEGDBVtnNyDKhoFuJS, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:20:57 PM [Reply]

Best Site good looking

Comment by AEGDBVtnNyDKhoFuJS, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 07:21:21 PM [Reply]

Excellent work, Nice Design

Comment by SxwndeRjhcr, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:12:33 PM [Reply]

perfect design thanks

Comment by SxwndeRjhcr, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:13:15 PM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by SxwndeRjhcr, Tuesday 7th of September 2010 10:13:19 PM [Reply]

Very interesting tale

Comment by andy, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 01:01:46 AM [Reply]

http://www.yiwuen.com yiwu

Comment by yUUbKqdGCNaMfn, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 01:05:10 AM [Reply]

Comment by yUUbKqdGCNaMfn, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 01:05:18 AM [Reply]

Thanks funny site

Comment by yUUbKqdGCNaMfn, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 01:05:31 AM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by gLGJGiKS, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 04:00:51 AM [Reply]

Best Site good looking

Comment by gLGJGiKS, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 04:00:59 AM [Reply]

Very funny pictures

Comment by gLGJGiKS, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 04:01:07 AM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by LSytJYgx, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 06:51:30 AM [Reply]

Best Site good looking

Comment by LSytJYgx, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 06:52:11 AM [Reply]

Hello good day

Comment by LSytJYgx, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 06:52:17 AM [Reply]

Punk not dead

Comment by lOgvxShjnsbCSEdba, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 09:40:51 AM [Reply]

Good crew it's cool :)

Comment by lOgvxShjnsbCSEdba, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 09:40:55 AM [Reply]

magic story very thanks

Comment by lOgvxShjnsbCSEdba, Wednesday 8th of September 2010 09:41:00 AM [Reply]

I love this site

Comment by abb3w, Sunday 13th of January 2008 05:07:35 AM [Reply]

Did they fix the inconsistency in the time units?

Comment by maximinus, Sunday 13th of January 2008 12:39:38 PM [Reply]

I'm not sure; I didn't know there was one. Would you care to elaborate on this inconsistency?