NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
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Never understood why anyone cares. As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works. "Oh, it's easier to convert..." Yeah, scientists are always doing complex calculations and conversions in their heads. Besides, knowing bureaucracies, some department somewhere wouldn't convert and the state of Florida would explode.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works.
That's kind of the point - the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed because NASA use Imperial and the subcontractor used Metric: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter[^]
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Joe Woodbury wrote:
As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works.
That's kind of the point - the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed because NASA use Imperial and the subcontractor used Metric: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter[^]
Yes, and they say project cost was $327.6 millions. So the lack of coherence hs already cost almost the $370 millions.
You can't turn lead into gold, unless you've built yourself a nuclear plant.
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
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Kant wrote:
pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons.
Shouldn't that be "the more widely adopted kilograms and meters"?
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
_Maxxx_ wrote:
Kant wrote: pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. Shouldn't that be "the more widely adopted kilograms and meters"?
Something tells me that with the conversions like pounds=>meters, and feet=>newtons, its going to take a heck of a lot more than 370 million $.
During a lecture, a non-sleeping student is like a PC copying data from CD to HDD in DMA mode. That is, incoming data is written straight onto paper, bypassing the brain.
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As big as it is, I'm quite surprise at the amount, I would have guessed more $$
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Yes, I mean this type of amount seems a good investment to the future. An investment that will be paid off just from the fact that metric is way more simple, and is used by physicists etc.
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Never understood why anyone cares. As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works. "Oh, it's easier to convert..." Yeah, scientists are always doing complex calculations and conversions in their heads. Besides, knowing bureaucracies, some department somewhere wouldn't convert and the state of Florida would explode.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
You just don't get how easier it is to convert. Even volume to weight in metric can be done in our heads, and IS done in our heads for simple things. And of course you're mixing things when you're reading for example an article or collaborate with someone who's not from the States.
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Kant wrote:
pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons.
Shouldn't that be "the more widely adopted kilograms and meters"?
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Newtons and "pounds of thrust" are measurements of force. Technically, because a Newton is a measurement of force, you can use any weight measurement to convey the amount in weigh and indeed, 1N = 0.102kg Unless you're being sarcastic...
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Book: Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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Never understood why anyone cares. As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works. "Oh, it's easier to convert..." Yeah, scientists are always doing complex calculations and conversions in their heads. Besides, knowing bureaucracies, some department somewhere wouldn't convert and the state of Florida would explode.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
...and the state of Florida would explode.
And that would be a bad thing? :laugh:
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Now that's funny! :-D
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Book: Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
"Three nations have not officially adopted the International System of Units as their primary or sole system of measurement: Liberia, Myanmar and the United States."
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
It's not just conversion that costs - if you read Richard Feynman's account of the investigation of the Challenger shuttlke disaster, NASA turned down an eminently sensible suggestion from an engineer working on the solid rocket boosters to put four blobs of paint near the field joints to help them line up bolts more easily - it would have been too expensive - not for the paint, but to rewrite all of the manuals!
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
And staying with the computers from the space shuttle will save the money for reprogramming everthing. IBM may be a bit short in supply, but if you bribe a bit, many things can happen. At least, you don't spend to much money on engineering and leave that budget intact. IMHO pairing with the ESA on the development of some space electronic building blocks would save a lot of money in the long run. For that, you have to use the metric system of course. But this would lead to competition on sub systems, which is not wanted by manufacturers of space equipment long expensed. No car manufacturer makes the elctronics these days. And for the mechanical parts: The german or japanese machines in the production line just need a firmware update and are ready for the metric system. America producers, would want to sell to the world can do this too. They just don't speak about it.
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Newtons and "pounds of thrust" are measurements of force. Technically, because a Newton is a measurement of force, you can use any weight measurement to convey the amount in weigh and indeed, 1N = 0.102kg Unless you're being sarcastic...
If the post was helpful, please vote, eh! Current activities: Book: Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
Me? Sarcastic? I'd simply argue that Kilograms are more widely used than Newtons (when comparing Pounds) and (here I may be wrong) I feel the UOM for Pounds of Thrust is Pounds of thrust, and not Pounds. Also, they were in opposite orders (as someone pointed out above) Sarcastic? No. Pedantic? welll......
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
What velocity do you need to reach to escape Earth's orbit? In units of furlongs per fortnight of course. :) Robert
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Kant wrote:
pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons.
Shouldn't that be "the more widely adopted kilograms and meters"?
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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The shuttles that NASA uses to fly to space currently use measurements in the form of pounds and feet as opposed to the more widely adopted meters and newtons. The upcoming shuttle replacement will continue to use the imperial measurement system because it would cost NASA $370 million dollars to convert to the "'International System' of units". NASA: It would cost $370 million to convert to metric[^] :wtf: :omg: Read the comments in that post.
రవికాంత్
What's $370M in pounds, shillings, and pence?
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Never understood why anyone cares. As long as you aren't mixing systems, either one works. "Oh, it's easier to convert..." Yeah, scientists are always doing complex calculations and conversions in their heads. Besides, knowing bureaucracies, some department somewhere wouldn't convert and the state of Florida would explode.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
"Oh, it's easier to convert..." Yeah, scientists are always doing complex calculations and conversions in their heads.
Not full calculations, but shifting the decimal point makes order of magnitude sanity checking far easier.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
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You just don't get how easier it is to convert. Even volume to weight in metric can be done in our heads, and IS done in our heads for simple things. And of course you're mixing things when you're reading for example an article or collaborate with someone who's not from the States.
I know exactly how easy it is to convert. We use metric for all designs at my current job. The point is that with CAD and other tools, it really doesn't matter. Metric is not some magical system; it's basis is just as arbitrary as English measurements.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke