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NASA Will Go Metric On the Moon
An anonymous reader writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA has decided to use the metric system for its new lunar missions. NASA hopes that metrication will allow easier international participation and safer missions. The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on an error converting between English units and metric units. 'When we made the announcement at the meeting, the reps for the other space agencies all gave a little cheer,' said a NASA official."
The metric system is the tool of the devil! My spaceship gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!
The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on an error converting between English units and metric units.
And to think when we were learning the metric system in school, the teacher told us it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
I guess he was wrong.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
when the first McD's is built on the moon, I have to order a "Royal With Cheese" ?
I used to be with IT..now IT seems strange and scary to me.
I'm confused - are they only going to use the Metric system on the Moon?
or is it more like: "Dude, did you see that?! NASA totally went Metric on the Moon's ass!"
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
I imagine this will assist the U.S. is its conversion to the metric system, something it has been trying to do for many years now.
Yeah, they started with the 2-liter bottles of soda about 20 years ago, so it looks like they're working their way down the list.
I wonder what comes next, after beverage containers, and interplanetary spacecraft.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I'm British, so I deal with both systems on a daily basis and I think we've got it pretty sorted. Doing something important, where you need accuracy do it in metric doing something fun, do it in imperial.
Distance to the shops in miles, distance to the sun in kilometers
I measure my weight in stones and pounds, but I cook in grams.
Size of my wang in feet (ok, ok inches) size of my windows in cm.
I'm not sure why Americans feel the need to stick to imperial, especially in light of computers. At least NASA has now seen the light.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I think the only car companies still making cars in America are the Japanese. :-D
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
I mess around with electric guitars in my nonexistent spare time. Last time I ordered a guitar neck from a US manufacturer it was described as being 43 millimetres wide and 0.85 inches thick, with tuning-machine holes pre-drilled at 11/32 inches.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
From Wikipedia:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Metric_system.
But the Death Star would almost certainly use Imperial units, would it not?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Just like we buy meat by the pound, but cocaine by the kilo!
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno