Comments on: Online conversion

By: Antony Williams

Antony Williams — Tue, 15 May 2007 18:39:39 +0000

Thanks for working on the online converter issue noted in Peter’s blog. Peter’s analysis of ChemSpider and the accompanying analysis of your blog have migrated from data content comments, to prediction comments to definitions and now to this tool on Spinneret. It is at a level of detail unseen from other testers and we have voted Peter “Tester of the Month” as a result of his feedback.

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Mon, 14 May 2007 10:42:43 +0000

Chemist Peter Murray-Rust pointed out that there was a problem with our online conversion widget (which we also use on the Spinneret Chemistry News website). Apparently, he tried to convert between centimeters and kilometers. Not a common conversion, I hasten to add, but a potentially valid one nevertheless. Unfortunately, because I had set the default number of decimal places displayed to just two, such a conversion 1 cm to km, gave the answer 0.00 km. Which to two decimal places, with rounding is, as far as I am aware, and Sig Fig readers can probably back me up on this, correct. 1 cm is 0.00 km to two decimal places.

This is not a bug, it’s a consequence of carrying out an odd and unlikely conversion. Admittedly, we did not include a note to alert users to this perhaps odd possibility. So, as a compromise, I’ve upped the number of decimals displayed. This will, of course, bring with it its own problems in that converting between certain units will produce an apparent precision that does not in reality exist. Convert 1 cm to inches, for instance. The answer given is 0.39370″ But, that’s got six significant figures, whereas our original value was given only to one sig fig, 1 cm, as opposed to 1.00000 cm, which is different.

Anyway, thanks for setting us straight.

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:23:49 +0000

I’ve switched the online converter to basic mode, there really are just too many obscure units in the extended version for the majority of readers and I’d like to make it as accessible as possible.

By: miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:56:07 +0000

BTW, if you notice – for most part the widget has adapted to your theme’s CSS except for the drop-down boxes (unit selectors) and the amount input box. That, unfortunately, is something I cannot control.

However, if you are interested I can suggest a small modification to your CSS – which involves inserting one more line defining the styles of the drop-downs & inputs – that can make the widget look entirely blended in with your theme.

Best Regards,
Sourjya

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:33:34 +0000

Great news on the non-widget version. I’ve got a whole stack of science sites I’d like to use this online units converter with!

By: miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:46:42 +0000

Thank you David for such a wonderful review Made me feel that every bit of effort I put on that plug-in was more than justified, And am glad that you found it so useful.

I’ll be improving on the looks & functionality as well as add in more conversion types / units. I’ll keep you updated on any new developments. And yeah, the non-widgetized version should follow soon. I’ve almost got it

Best regards,
Sourjya