Encyclopedia WinterCampica Volume U

Contents
Ultimate Frisbee	Undercover Dinner	Unit Election
Universal Measurement	Upstairs, Downstairs

Ultimate Frisbee

An exciting addition to Winter Camps X-XIII, this game was usually contested in Clearwater campsite. The Winter Camp rules dictate that a defender can come no closer than arm's length from the player holding the Frisbee; Mark Bollman® devised a simple and often-applied test for violations of this rule. If you can hit the defender over the head with the Frisbee, he is too close and deserves to be smacked.

Undercover Dinner

At Winter Camp XXI, dinner on Day One was served with the twist that each person was to hide their food from everyone else so that no one could see what they were eating. Brian Mann provided a blanket which covered four Arrowmen, but he was extremely concerned that nobody get any food on it.

Unit Election

Winter Camp took new definitive steps toward assuring its continued existence at Winter Camp XXII, when a unit election was conducted from Troop 1373. The unit, one of two others in camp, was staying at South Cove cabin. Another election was held for 1373 at Winter Camp XXIII, this time at Johnstone cabin. The unit, known to be a bunch of pranksters, lived up to their reputation in 1999. The sent a molly (a variation on cherry cobbler) and ice cream back to Winter Camp, although the Scouts' proposal to lace it with Ex-Lax was nixed. In addition, the election team was advised to drink nothing while at Johnstone, and Steve Donohue found his car augmented by two whistles in the tailpipe and a tie-wrap on the drive shaft. The latter modification made considerable noise while removing the rustproofing from the undercarriage.

Universal Measurement

Universal measurement is a system of units based on constants thought to be appropriate for use throughout the universe. Jeff Rand put together this system, and at his suggestion, the system presented below was first adopted for Winter Camp use at Winter Camp II in 1978--indeed, the master copy of the schedule for that encampment is fully demarcated in jiffys without conversion factors. The system at Winter Camp II included units for distance, mass, time, and temperature. In 1994, further work was undertaken at the Winter Camp Bureau of Standards with the intent of defining absolute standards and base units for three additional quantities, thus developing a complete measurement system. While the system has not been in the forefront of Winter Camp measurement since then, it remains an important part of Winter Camp lore. The fundamental standard of this system is the electron: the base units for mass, distance, and time are based on its classical physical properties. (Recent advances in particle physics regard the electron as a point charge without radius; nonetheless, the classical radius is still a well-defined constant quantity likely to be familiar to any advanced civilization.)

Distance
1 tit (t) = The classical radius of an electron at rest. (Also known as the tic, a name assigned by Mark Bollman® on a number of occasions when he has taught about this system to various mathematics and physics classes.)
1 tad (T) = 10¹⁵ tits(tics).

Mass
1 dash (d) = The mass of an electron at rest.
1 holbrook (hbk) = 10³⁰ dashes.

Time
1 flash (f) = Time taken for light to travel the classical radius of an electron in a vacuum.
1 jiffy (J) = 10²⁶ flashes.
1 bluemoon (bm) = 10³⁰ flashes.
1 hellfreeze (hf) = 10³⁵ flashes.

Temperature
1 scorch (s) = 10^-1×Triple point of hydrogen (100% 1H isotopes)

Electricity
-1 zap (z) = The charge on an electron. This quantity is chosen so that an electron has charge of -1 zap and a proton has charge +1 zap.

Amount of Substance
1 jimpop (jp) = The number of elementary objects equal to the number of atoms in .1 hbk of hydrogen-1.

Luminous Intensity
1 gary (g) = The luminous intensity generated from the photon emitted by an electron jumping from the first excited state to the ground state in a hydrogen atom.

Supplemental unit: Volume
While the official unit of volume in this system is the cubic tit, universal measurement follows the example set by the metric system in choosing a slightly more convenient unit for commonplace measurements. The stonesink was added to the system in 1997.
1 stonesink (S) = 1 cubic decitad (1/1000 T³, 1 x 10⁴² t³)

Approximate Conversion Factors
1 t = 2.817938 x 10^-15 meters.
1 d = 9.109390 x 10^-31 kilograms.
1 f = 9.399629 x 10^-24 seconds.
1 s = 1.301025 kelvins.
1 z = 1.602177 x 10^-19 coulombs.
1 jp = 903.750555 moles.
1 T = 2.817938 meters = 9.245203 feet.
1 hbk = 910.953447 grams.
1 J = 939.96297 seconds = 15.66605 minutes.
1 bm = 108.79201 days.
1 hf = 29786.24 Gregorian years.
1 S = 22.376610 liters = 5.911275 gallons.


With the introduction of new units, the values of various physical constants, familiar to any science or engineering student, are changed. (The friedman, denoted fr, appears in some of these constants. It is the universal energy unit; 1 fr = 1 d×t²/f². Also present is the nudge, the universal unit of force. 1 n = 1 d×t/f²)

Constants of Nature

Quantity	Conventional value	Universal value
Speed of light	c = 2.997925 x 108 m/s	1 t/f = 1011 T/J
Electron charge	e = -1.602177 x 10-19 C	-1 z
Electron mass	me = 9.109390 x 10-31 kg	1 d
Proton mass	mp = 1.672623 x 10-27 kg	1836.152701 d
Neutron mass	mn = 1.674929 x 10-27 kg	1838.704685 d
Atomic mass unit	u = 1.660540 x 10-27 kg	1822.766411 d
Boltzmann constant	k = 1.380657 x 10-23 J/K	2.195189 x 10-10 fr/s
Fine structure constant	a = 7.297353 x 10-3	Same.
Gravitational constant	G = 6.67 x 10-11 Nm2/kg2	2.399 x 10-43 n×t2/d2
Gravitational acceleration	g = 9.80665 m/s2	3.268928 x 10-34 t/f2
Mass-energy relation	c2 = 8.987552 x 1016 m2/s2	1 t2/f2 = 1022 T2/J2
Permittivity constant	e0 = 8.854 x 10-12 C2/Nm2	1/4p z2/n×t2
Permeability constant	m0 = 4p x 10-7 H/m	4p d×t/z2
Planck time	T = 5.38 x 10-44 s	5.735323 x 10-21 f
Planck's constant	h = 6.626076 x 10-34 J×s	861.539267 fr×f
Planck's constant/2p	_ = 1.054573 x 10-34 J×s	137.118233 fr×f
Rydberg constant	R = 1.097373 x 107 m-1	3.086772 x 10-8 t-1
Stefan-Boltzmann const.	s = 5.67050 x 10-8 W/m2K4	1.480648 x 10-46 d/s4f3
Universal gas constant	R = 8.314510 J/mol×K	1.194734 x1017 fr/jp×s

Further details are available in the Yottapedia.

Upstairs, Downstairs

With all due respect to the BBC television series, the presence of erosion blocks and the natural lay of the land leads naturally to referring to Clearwater cabin as “downstairs” and to Beaver Creek cabin as “upstairs”. (SD)

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