Is there a named unit that, when divided by 32, gives meters per second? I am receiving unknown units of speed from another system. I must divide the value by 32 to get meters per second. What units do I use to refer to the values I'm receiving? Is there any such unit? Is this just random malice from the previous developers? Google give me nothing.
 A: Given that if you divide your numbers by 32, you get a speed in meters per second, that means that the unit for the speeds you are being given is $\frac{1}{32}\mathrm{\frac{m}{s}}$. There's no standard name for this unit, but that's not a problem. People use unnamed, nonstandard units all the time. In fact, that's how all our current units got started. A meter was originally defined to be a pretty much arbitrary distance, and the only reason it now has a name and is so widely used is that a bunch of people all agreed to call this particular arbitrary distance a "meter."
If it bothers you to be using a unit without a name, you can give it one. Just make a note somewhere that, say
$$1\text{ Dave} = \frac{1}{32}\mathrm{\frac{m}{s}}$$
and then you can write that your speeds are measured in Daves.
Here's another post on the nature of units that is, if not directly relevant to you, at least closely related.
A: Dividing by 32 is equivalent to shifting by 5 bits in binary.  This number probably comes from some digital hardware which uses a fixed point binary representation for the velocity.
