The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures

By Alex in Comics & Cartoons, Everything Else on Jan 15, 2008 at 4:28 am

In high school, would be computer scientist Donald E. Knuth (later known as the "Father of Analysis of Algorithm), developed a Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures, after a running gag in Mad magazine. The basis of this revolutionary system, according to Knuth, is that 1 potrzebie is equal to the thickness of the Mad magazine issue #26 or 2.63348517438173216473 mm.

What, you don’t believe that the Potrzebie System of Weights and Measurements is a valid system? Just ask Google – via The Presurfer

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

Sid Morrison
Jan 15th, 2008 at 8:40 am
You’ve got a critical typo here — the most significant digit (the leftmost 2) in the unit conversion was left off. It should read “1 potrzebie = 2.263348517438173216473 mm”, not 263348517438173216473 mm.

Life can now resume.
badiuk
Jan 15th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Nie od dzi? wiadomo ?e w Polsce ka?dy jest w ‘potrzebie’ ))
skoteina
Jan 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
i remember reading the original in MAD back in the ’50s. my dad, a physicist at NACA (the pre-sputnik precursor to NASA), examined it and proclaimed it sound and consistent. viva potrzebie!
Alex
Jan 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Thanks Sid – I’ve fixed this life-stopping error!
aware
Jan 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
farshimmelt (fuhr SHIM mlt) is Yiddish for moldy/molded. like in German: verschimmelt.

i wonder what the other words mean. halavah might be “helluva/hell of a”…
Alex
Jan 16th, 2008 at 2:12 am
halavah – as everybody knows – is “a form of pie [with] a specific gravity of 3.1416 and a specific heat of .31416″
XuYu
Jan 16th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Your link doesn’t work for me. Maybe this one is better?

http://www.google.com/search?q=1+potrzebie+in+mm

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