A8 - Wednesday, June 13, 1984 - North Shore News ucid Mr. Barnett solves gigajoule problem ECENTLY, this column delved into the mysteries of the gigajoule, which has replaced the billing umit on your Hydro bills. The joule, it was discovered after much in- vestigation by your unmetricated correspondent, 1s a billion. But what is a giga, and therefore a gigajoule? It couldn't be a billion gig- gles, nor even a single piggle, because it as connected to how much natural gas you've used) Anyway, the word 1s not ino my five-inch thick, 250,000 word dictionary and consequently doesn’t exist Also, itis even worse than the killerpascal, which kills the cubic inch and measures air, because If COSTS More. You can bet your 7§ cent dollars, too, that the giga- joule will cost more than the billing unit, although BC Hydro demies it. This thesis, brilhanth developed by my humble self, was seen by Mr George Barnett, Manager of Hydro'’s Rates and Costs Department, a man with a sense of humor. His response tollows: Dear Mr. Collins Several people have sent me copies of your article of 30 May 1984 about giga- joules, knowing that | had a Doug Collins hand in preparing the B.C. Hydro notice. So | thought of explaining gigajoule and, 8 mailbox |><| SPCA needs NV chapter Dear Editor May | be permitted ta com ment on the several letters of criticism of the North Van pound operation which have appeared in vous paper recently COUET Many years apo. thic pounds were operated by private individuals hired by the local authonty who pro duced most of thei through personal mpounding animals and subsequent sale of those toe reclaimed In the late SOs the SPOON VV TT etfort oan Porn policy! locar beditor Perspos tase pornography 1 dasapree ter ttn with what vou sell en re defemd Cathe heart Loo top dat tar sedlat > Woinglicld North Vancouver during this event' felt thes could do a more humane job and render a bet- ter service and since then have contracted with various muniwipalities ta provide animal control which they do very ctficrently . to the degree that the revenues from fines, lhoenees and sales in many eases defray the cost of the AU I pal Brants But abiitiab Control thas Is basically Super sised Nan ambulance Scr by headquarters in eoryer An vice For inyured pets and: bath Cue fr pet. y and orepular hhosputal scoviee as ay ailabele Whit needed is a oN Van chapter of the society which will concern itself wath the well vif repraruide sd amittiads sai boa caugstyoun West Nottie rat ee tras bea corr ddr bert ded a NI. Pteornies hve SNe ea NV! od mtr SPN ty a) eta tap Thea Dr KP bParashiaw Nocth Vancouver We appliance values by AX } re movin like you, had recourse to my dictionary It has the disad- Vantage of containing some 110,000 words less than yours, though | doubt if 1 would miss any (of the 140,000 additional words contained in) Collins's dic- tionary — Ed.) and is only two inches thick and presumably less likely to in- flict lower back pain. It con- tains the following information. Giga is defined, as vou deduce, as a bilhon U'ntor- tunately at as mot indicated whether it is a U.S. bilhon, which the British call oa milliard, or a British billion, which Americans call a trillion. It does say a billion ts a very large number, though personally | favor the more colloquial definition of ‘‘a helluva low’ Joule as quite clear. Hos 10-7 ergs. Anerg, !f one is in- terested, is the work done by one dyne acting through one centimeter. And as everyone knows, a dyne gives a mass of one gram and acceleration ot one centimeter per second per second (This is not a typographical stutter.) All of that is metric; what ts important for ex-Brits like us is that my dictionary also defines a joule as approx- imately 0.74 foot-pounds. Here we're on home ground as long as we remember that a foot is one sixty-sixth of a chain, and a pound one tour- teenth of a stone. Having clarified the mat- ter, | should add that we could define a joule as a kilowatthour divided by For Only $51,900 3,600, but thought this may contuse customers using both pas and electricity. Or alter- naively, we could rely on the jolly old British Thermal Unit which ts almost 1,008 youles, and ts the amount of heat needed to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit — vital intorma- tion for making a good pot of lea To conclude, the words “*giga’’ and “‘youle’’ do both exist and | feel at as untor- tunate that you didn’t ask Sykes rather than relying ona lexicOgrapher who didn’t conceive Of your need. Yours truly, George Barnett There you have it. In the end, | did ask Svkes — my old Boxer dog — and he con- Cottage For Only $10,900 More GAMBIER ISLAND SEA RANCH SEEING IS BEE TE NING! Pitteen Cottages have now been completed Now is vour oppor tirmed everything Mr. Barnett says. He also warned that B.C. Hydro will pro- bably put extra gigajoules on the bill in return for all the trouble [I've caused them, knowing no one in our house will know the difference Become a Friend of BC's Children's Hospital. 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