14 DAY TRIAL // In the long list of Google Products' options that you will most likely never use, but are there anyway, the Google Calculator incorporated in its Search can now do its job using the Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures that Donald Knuth, a former computer scientist at Stanford University, introduced in issue 33 of the satirical magazine "Mad", in 1957.
In case you are wondering what the hell is it and why would it be here now, I'll try to shed some light on the matter: 1 potrzebie equals roughly 2.2633 mm, a number chosen because it was the thickness of Mad issue 26. Why it is here now is actually a lot simpler to understand: Google decided to honor this way Knuth's birthday, who has recently turned 70.
There are more units except the one I've just mentioned, it's a complete system, worthy of a Stanford University scientist: length is measured in farshimmelt potrzebie, volume in ngogn and mass in furshlugginer blintz. Yes, they are tongue twisters to some extent, perhaps that's one of the reasons they haven't caught on better (or, is it that they are completely useless and there are already other measuring units that do a better job and are accepted throughout the world?).
I think that some nerds might have the times of their life using this feature of the Google Calculator, but I'm pretty sure that it's usability is quite low. I'm wondering what will Google Trends think of this in the future, when it will list it as having enough search volume. I tried searching for it by using the fill-in while typing feature that I use and I got about 1,100 returns for the system and about 1,180,000 for the potrzebie unit.
Who knows, maybe some day long in the future, the aliens that will come will think that this has actually been useful. I sure don't!