Another English/Metric "Spacecraft" Problem

SuperDry writes "There's been another spacecraft failure that's been attributed to an English/Metric units problem, this time at Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain. An axle broke on a "spacecraft" (a.k.a. roller coaster train) mid-ride, causing it to derail (nobody was hurt). The final investigation report has been released, and the root cause has been determined to be a part being the wrong size due to a conversion of the master plans in 1995 from English units to Metric units. In 2002, new axles were mistakenly ordered using the pre-1995 English specifications instead of the current Metric specifications. Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference."

Comments

English units?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about you, but us English call the measurement system the Imperial system. Isn't the American version slightly different, in respect to fluid units, etc?

Re:English units?

[sketerpot]

Hear hear. I find Imperial units extremely painful to do conversions with, so I propose that we go to the much easier Metric system! It's all for the better! You can do conversions in your head! Complicated conversions! We will CRUSH OUR ENEMIES WITH THE METRIC SYSTEM!

Besides this rather geeky calculation, people who use and defend the use of the imperial system don't know how to use it! I was talking to someone about DSL, and I said something like, "even if you're 15000 feet from the CO, and you're much farther, performance would suck." and she had no idea how far that is in miles (it's a little less than 3, for our metrified friends).

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I live in the US, and I couldn't for the life of me do that conversion without the aid of a reference and a calculator. With metric, it would be so easy that I could just say it in meters or kilometers without missing a beat.

Imperial, not English...

[arafel]

Why do you call them 'English' units, when everyone else knows them as Imperial units? :-) We stopped using most of them some time ago.

The US needs to catch up

[Listen Up]

The US needs to catch up to the rest of the world. The entire world uses Metric people. And it makes an infinite amount more sense to use Metric than the US system. If we don't, trade will continue to suffer as well as accidents such as this one.

Re:If the U.S. hates the french so much

[Progman3K]

If the U.S. hates the french so much, they should dynamite the Statue of Liberty, because that was a gift from the french to the U.S.

It would serve the french and the americans right!

See how stupid all this french or american bashing is?

Grow up, people.

Re:Who's at fault here, really?

[Rhubarb Crumble]

Hey, I like the metric system. I really do. But sticking to the english system has never caused an aircraft to run out of fuel at altitude, a roller coaster to break, or a spacecraft to crash. The zeal to enforce metric conversion, however, has caused all of those things.

Hey, I like the imperial/english/mediaeval/whatever system. I really do. But sticking to the metric system has never caused an aircraft to run out of fuel at altitude, a roller coaster to break, or a spacecraft to crash. The zeal to make specifications understandable to people who think in terms of the size of kings' thumbs and the area of land that can be ploughed by an ox in a morning, however, has caused all of those things.

The simplest argument in favour of the metric system is that it's base-10... (or base-10^3 if you want to be picky...) Of course once all our civilisation is outsourced to India and China I guess we'd better get used to counting in 10^4 or 10^5... (wans and lakhs)

Blah blah US economy blah blah

[Imperator]

Don't give me that crap about how much better the US economy performs than the EU. The median standard of living in the EU is higher than in the US. The US economy is great at producing wealth at the top, but conservative Americans have an aversion to using the economy to solve social problems ("communism! class war!"). I think this is a major reason why Europeans view the US as "backwards". Yes, both the US and the EU have economies that have solved the problems of food, shelter, and medicine. But the US has not seen to distributing those solutions to the people.

Many Americans have an ingrained sense that the only job of the economy is to grow. Things like social nets and environmental protections interfere with the ability of the (total) economy to grow at the fastest rate possible, so they must be inherently bad. This is the unifying economic philosophy of the conservative Republicans: government itself is inherently bad precisely because it siphons money (taxes) away from investment and consumption. If you believe in Reaganomics ("a rising tide lifts all boats") this makes some sense. But in the real world, it leads to a morally bankrupt society obsessed with money.

</rant>

So in conclusion, there are 36 inches in a yard.