The Talent-Mile system was developed in November 2002 on several internet message boards. It uses variants of traditional units such as the mile, the gallon, and the (approximately 50-pound) talent mass unit. These are power-of-ten scale-ups of the Planck units intrinsic to the physical universe.
Talent-Mile is a fully decimal system in which the main natural constants take on values which are exactly equal to powers of ten, or (as happens in the case of the gravitation constant G) approximately a power of ten. It is intended as a non-metric alternative for educational and scientific use. When expressed in T-M units the speed of light is E7, Planck's hbar is E-40, Boltzmann's k is E-25, the Avogadro number is E23, the electron charge is E-23. These power-of-ten values are exact and that of G is approximate—1.00E-15.
As a convenience, for use in some specialized contexts, the basic system definitions employ a technical minute of 54 ordinary seconds—exactly 90 percent of the ordinary minute. No reform of time-telling is suggested, one continues to use conventional units of time (hours-minutes-seconds) in general, but has one additional unit available for optional use in problem-solving. The definitions lead to a mile of 1618.88 meters, a gallon of 4.24 liters, and a talent mass unit of 21.73 kilo—these being approximately equal to power-of-ten scale-ups of the corresponding Planck units.
The corresponding force unit (oc = talent mile per sq.minute) is about 12 metric newtons or 2.7 pounds, and the ocmile is 4.7 conventional food Calories, i.e. 4.7 kilocalories. The definitions are logically equivalent to requiring c, hbar, k, e, and the Avogadro number take on certain exact power-of-ten values.
c = E7 miles per minute
hbar = E-40 ocmile minute
k = E-25 ocmile per grade
mole = E23 items
e = E-23 charge unit
With T-M so-defined, G = 1.00E-15 cubmile/sqminute per talent. The metric counterparts of all these values are quite ugly.
Here is a sample physics tutorial on Newton's laws in T-M units, at the highschool level, adapted from an online tutorial by a Peruvian highschool student.
Talent-Mile is a more consistently decimal system than metric and it makes more of the basic conversion factors come out power-of-ten. It does what metric was designed to do, but better. That's a real easy goal to achieve because metric was designed in 1790 when people didn't know very much about the ratios built into nature (so they got the sizes of metric units wrong.)
But there is something else really remarkable and unexpected about Talent-Mile: the lucky hits. AFTER you make the main constants of nature be powers of ten (c, hbar, G, k, e, Avogadro, molarvolume, gas constant,...) which determines what the sizes of the units have to be (reduced minute, mile, talent, charge unit, temp unit, mole...) then you start noticing fortunate chance coincidences within a few percent involving convenient details. These make the units enjoyable to use. Here is an updated list of these convenient coincidences
To mention a few samples, Earth's speed comes out to be 1000 miles a minute, the sun's power output turns out to be a a trillion trillion power units, sound goes 10 miles a minute in much of the atmosphere, the sunlight energy in a cubic mile adds up to one ocmile (the T-M energy unit), the average quantum energy of sunlight is one electron volt, the charge unit is exactly a mole of electrons, and so on.
There is a message board called JUNK THE METRIC SYSTEM for discussing modern alternatives to the metric system such as T-M. It is just getting started, so if you post there it will help encourage other visitors to do likewise. It's also a good place to post any questions you might have about conversion factors and other details.
The T-M system has three basic units:
minute = 54 atomic clock seconds, 1/1600 day
mile = tenmillionth of lightminute
talent = 1040 hbar minute per sq.mile
The mile and talent have metric equivalents as follows
mile = 1618.88 meter (to verify multiply 54 seconds by the metric
speed 29.9792458 meters/second)
talent = 21.73 kilogram (to check, evaluate the definition given
here with whichever metric hbar you prefer, metric comes in several not
perfectly consistent flavors—differences though are slight)
In addition to these three there are a limited number of auxilliary units: a temperature scale ("grade") and an as yet unnamed unit of electric charge. A thousandth of a mile, 1.61888 meters, is called a PACE and smaller distances are described using the customary prefixes---milli, micro, nano etc. A thousandth of a cubic pace is a GALLON. This auxilliary volume unit is roughly halfway between the US and UK gallons.
The mile and talent give rise to a force unit which in metric terms is 12 newtons (a 2.7 pound force) and is called OC, after the traditional unit of that size used in parts of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. An oc is the force required to give unit mass the unit acceleration of one mile a minute per minute. For more information about the traditional 2.7 pound ocque unit see Google [ocque oke].
oc = talent mile per sq. minute
ocmile = energy delivered by a mile-long oc push (5 food
Calories, more precisely 4.7, and in metric terms 20 thousand joules).
volt = unit energy potential (one ocmile) per unit charge.
electron volt = exactly E-23 ocmile, approx. 1.2 conventional eV.
The talent and mile also give rise to a power unit—the power delivering one ocmile of energy per minute. This turns out to be about half a horsepower or 360 metric watts and PONY was suggested as a name.
The Talent-Mile system was summarized on the Metricsucks board back on 11 December ("Latest and Greatest" post). Since then a number of posts have used the units in examples: (How the Planckhead Weighed the Moon, How the Floridan Flew in an Aluminum Lawn Chair, Data on the Seawolf Attack Submarine, Lo Fat the Dreaded Pirate of Rangoon, How to Boil the Noodles Properly, and so on). The examples that were posted tend to reflect the tast and interests of board-participants.
More examples: The BMW Mini S engine, for instance, because it is rated at 145 hp, develops some 290 ponies. The Mini is 105 centipace wide and has a wheelbase of 210 centipace. In other words it is about 1 pace by 2 pace. Adult heights tend to be 100 cp or more, 100 corresponding to about 64 conventional inches. A cubic centipace is 4.2427 cubic centimeter. The Mini S has a 420 cubic cp engine. Bra sizes in cubic pinks, Princess Leia is raped by a giant Rat, Telling the distance and mass of the sun., The Fat Men from Space, Light-bending near the sun, How the Planckhead Reckoned a Planet's Density, How Great Frog Destroyed the Dinosaurs, How Engineer was Pursued by a Giant Chicken, The Hanging of JRR Tolkien by His Characters, The Hypocrites and their Flatbed Truck, How Mandrake discovered the diameter of the Demons' Planet,...
Precise metric conversion factors are easy to finesse from the CODATA tables at the NIST site, mostly to greater precision than one can imagine wanting. I've calculated many of these and shown how to get them quickly from data online at NIST. This is on a separate page together with summaries of some of the issues that have come up in discussion of Talent Mile units.
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