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479 Appendix One Units Used in the Ocean Sciences DISTANCE m, meter; picometer (1/trillion m); nanometer (1/billion m); micrometer (1/million m); millimeter (1/1,000 m); centimeter (1/100 m); decimeter (1/10 m); kilometer (1,000 m); inch (2.54 cm); foot (30.48 cm); fathom (6 foot, 1.8288 m); yard (1/2 fathom); mile (1.61 km); nautical mile (1.852 km; 1 min. of latitude at 45⬚ of lat.) VOLUME liter (33.814 U.S. fluid ounces; volume of 1 kg of water); cubic meter (1,000 liter); milliliter (1 ml; 1 cubic cm; 0.001 liter); cubic inch (16.387 cm3 ); gallon (U.S.) (3.7854 liter); quart (0.95 l) TIME s, second; pico- to millisecond, see distance for meaning of prefix terms; minute (60 s); hour (60 min); solar day (24 hours); astronomical day (0.9973 solar days); lunar month (29.53 days); year (mean solar year, 365.2564 solar days; 31,558,153 seconds) VELOCITY (DISTANCE PER TIME) cm/s (1 knot ⫽ 51.444 cm/s), kph (27.78 cm/s; 1 kn ⫽ 1.852 kph), mph (1 kn ⫽ 1 naut. mile/h), m/s (3.6 kph; 1.944 knot) TEMPERATURE degrees centigrade (or celsius or kelvin); fahrenheit (1.8 centigrade; zero celsius at 32 ⬚F) MASS gram (mass of 1 ml of water; 1/1,000 kg; 1/million ton); mg (1/1,000 g); ␮g (1/million g); metric ton (1 t ⫽ 1,000 kg ⫽ 2,205 lb). TRANSPORT (VOLUME PER TIME) sverdrup (1 sv = 1 million m3 /s) ENERGY AND POWER calorie (gram) (energy to raise 1 ml of water by 1 ⬚C); watt (1 joule/s; 860 g-cal/h); horsepower (0.7457 watt) irradiance: watts per square meter PRESSURE (FORCE PER AREA) atmosphere (1.0332 kg/cm2 ); bar (0.9869233 atm); lb/inch2 (14.22 lb/inch2 = 1 kg/cm2 ) CONCENTRATION grams per liter; mg/liter (milligrams per liter, parts per million); moles per liter (or gram-atom per liter, number of molecules or atoms per liter in terms of the ratio of mass over molecular weight; unity denotes Avogadro’s number) SOUND INTENSITY AND FREQUENCY decibel (db), a measure of the ratio of power densities , on a logarithmic scale, whereby the intensity of interest is compared to a standard. In air, faint whispers are near 40 decibels, the average human voice is 60, a leaf blower is 100 (for the operator), and exposure above 115 is considered hazardous. In water, numbers for equivalent intensity levels are higher by 62 db, because of differences in reference level and in transmission efficiency. hertz (Hz, cycles per second); pitch of sound; important in communication and orientation and echo hunting (acoustic biology), and in acoustic exploration (including seismic exploration); infrasound (low frequency, ⬍20 Hz) carries over long distances; ultrasound (high frequency, ⬎20 kHz) is useful in resolving small objects (such as swim-bladders); typical range of hearing in fishes (response to noise) ca. 100 to 1,000 Hz, but varies greatly depending on species (some respond to ultrasound); in baleen whales ca. 10 to 1,000 Hz; in dolphins ca. 100 to 100,000 Hz. (Maximum sensitivity in humans ca. 2,000 Hz.) Typical frequency in seismic exploration, 100 to 1,000 Hz. SOURCES Other than acoustics: C. Emiliani, 1992, Planet Earth—Cosmology, Geology, and the Evolution of Life and Environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge New York, 719 pp.; acoustics: various sources, scientific literature, also see articles on ocean acoustics in Steele, J. H., S.A. Thorpe, K.K. Turekian (eds.), 2001, Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, 6 vols., Academic Press, San Diego, 3399 pp. 480 A P P E N D I X O N E ...

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