https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2009/05/29/suboptimal-space-program-nasa-reverts-to-english-units/ miscellaneous musings and random rantings Sat, 28 Nov 2015 09:12:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9 https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2009/05/29/suboptimal-space-program-nasa-reverts-to-english-units/comment-page-1/#comment-4150 Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:36:30 +0000 http://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/?p=774#comment-4150 That’s a bit specious to be honest. *Actually* that catastrophe you reference was not caused by the use of English units, but by people not having an established standard to stick to: one group used English, another used Metric, and hilarity ensued. In this case, you’re dealing with scientists who (more likely than not) grew up in the US and are accustomed to using the usual system of measurement in the US (i.e. not metric) so if nothing else it would just be more natural for them to work under that system (I say this as an American who has spent 6 years in Europe and had to make the adjustment…it’s a weird thing to get used to). By issuing this proclamation, NASA is making DAMN sure that everybody is on the same page, so we avoid another MCO.

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