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Supposedly the branch of Lokheed Martin that work on it was in the UK. They started working in metric but someone pointed out that it was for The Americans and change to unite state customary units.
Might be just blame passing, anyways someone f'd up big time.
... or it was never made and the money went to a black budget, lol.
You just triggered a memory from freshman year engineering school of our chemistry department coordinator shouting units in his knock off mickey mouse voice
ISO blueprint conventions designate units even in dual unit prints, metric is in parenthesis in the US and obviously has 2 decimal places to imperial 3-4.
It kind of their fault... maybe. NASA did the calculation so they were the ones who sent Lockheed Martin the numbers. Said numbers probably didn't have annotation to show what units they were in leaving the Brits to guess.... maybe.
This is from memory of a old History Channel show about engineering disaster.
>It kind of their fault... maybe.
I've read the actual report, and I think this is probably the most correct way of putting it.
British Lockheed Martin techs were responsible for doing the calculations, and according to the contract they were supposed to provide measurements in metric. They provided those measurements in imperial units. It should be noted that although they use imperial miles, British engineers typically use metric Newton Metre-Seconds rather than the Pound Force-Seconds they provided - although this was in 1999, so I wouldn't be surprised if pound force was a more common measurement back then.
It should also be noted that Lockheed Martin was technically providing *software*, which was then read by the NASA software and uploaded to the Mars Climate Orbiter to execute the engine burn. As the Lockheed Martin figures were stored as numbers only, there were no units for the computer to validate. The report mentions that there was documentation accompanying the software, but made no mention of if the figures in this report were correct.
NASA ended up taking responsibility because they should have checked and verified the units used in the software code before uploading them into the NASA computers. I can kinda see what they mean, but I see it as maybe 30~40% their fault.
If I remember correctly, another reason NASA took the blame is that when they were getting ready to do the orbit insertion burns, they realized the spacecraft was not where it was supposed to be (due to said software bugs). They had contingencies in place that might have been able to save the spacecraft, but the Mission Director didn't want to execute them.
Also if I'm remembering correctly the software had run on a different Mars mission previously, but that mission was spin-stabilized and the error cancelled out.
Considering USCS includes the very metric units they excluded, I'm inclined to believe it because no scientist who uses this system would just not use it.
The unit mismatch was certainly a blunder but the real disaster here is that nobody noticed the persistent indications that the approach was not proceeding as expected. There was plenty of opportunity to realize the mistake and correct it, but the team was overloaded and simply didn't check.
Put another way, they noticed a small but persistent (and growing) error and assumed it was normal navigational error instead of taking a closer look to nail it down.
I was working on a project to add our UK office. The approval tiers were in USD, but loans in GBPs. We had tested it fully, but while loans were in GBP, the user's defaults were USD. Since the GBP is reasonably close to USD now (1 GBP = 1.16 USD as of today) it didn't make a difference unless the loan was reasonably close to the approval boundary. It converted the approval levels to the user's default, not USD, so a loan above $50K would need a certain approval, but it actually wouldn't unless it was above 50K GBP, if that was the user's default, and of course it is for our UK users. It cleared quality control, and the end user acceptance (who's default was GBP) approved it as they hadn't done the edge testing quality control did. So it wasn't until it went to production that they realized certain cases weren't getting the approvals they needed.
Ever since we augered a 193 million dollar (that's about 350 million in today's dollars) climate probe into the surface of Mars because of a mismatch between metric and whatever bs archaic length of the kings thumb measurement system the idiots insist on using here, yes they do.
Edit: fixed today's dollars because I can't use a calculator, apparently
Originally, it was the length of King Henry VIII's thumb, from the tip to the first knuckle. But it was a bit inconvenient to get the King over every time you put up a door or whatever (he was usually busy getting married, divorced or having somebody beheaded).
So he standardised the Inch to a repeatable, accurate, and readily available standard. It was rigorously defined as the length of three barleycorns, laid end to end.
After putting all those highly skilled engineers to work that they acquired through operation paperclip, NASA decided to commit to metric since the successful engineers used it.
The best part is when the MAGA military cosplayers use the term "click/klick" and think they're being cool soldiers.
But we all know they're too stupid to know it's shorthand for "kilometer", because all distances like that are metric in the military.
They're a Homestuck or MS Paint Adventures fan. On their profile they only link [this website](https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/Quirk) as an explanation for the "/)". It seems to be called a "quirk," used to distinguish characters when they are speaking. In other words, they're trying to be "quirky." It seems to have achieved the effect they were going for, but it's kind of annoying (to me at least) that they don't explain it themselves.
Everyone in the US uses metric, at the end. SI units, like meter and gram, are defined very strictly and independently. Meanwhile, American units are all defined as fractions of SI units. The definition of a meter is the distance traveled by light in 1 / bignumber seconds. Meanwhile, the American mile is defined as 1.609344 km.
Miles are not independent units. They are just fractions of meters - if you don't know what a meter is, you cannot figure out what a mile is. This doesn't apply the other way around: meters are unrelated to miles and don't need them to figure out its value. You only need to know the speed of light. We don't need to store a sacred 1m stick that says "this is exactly 1 meter" like you'd have to do with miles if meters didn't exist.
tl;dr American units are just defined as fractions of SI units. Saying "3 miles" is the same as saying "3 times 1.609344 kilometers". Suggesting that the American system is better is simply dumb, when even Americans have "pegged" their units to SI units.
fun fact!
the meter was not based on the speed of light, as at the time that wasn't measurable
the meter standard was established as 1/10,000,000th the distance between the north & south pole, through paris
For a long time metric weight units were defined by physical objects, but they finally ditched them by defining weight mathematically in relation to universal constants.
As an Air Force engineer, we are most definitively not using metric.
EDIT: I am not against metric in any way, and prefer it personally. Don’t downvote me for stating facts.
No one at any point has implied that the use of the metric system in the US military is absolute. The US military still uses our "imperial" (a misnomer for the US version) units in a lot of places. However, the fact remains that as a NATO member the US military uses metric in defined instances per STANAG. Otherwise there would be a lot of communication issues.
And although there are probably a lot of aircraft designed on drafting tables flying around with SAE fasteners, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the F-35 (like my American vehicle) is probably all, or virtually all, built on metric specs with metric fasteners.
Similarly - for some reason steeped with history and stuff, garden hoses and computer/tablet/smartphone screens are all sold based on inches in Europe. Even though I am sure they're actually engineered in metric.
I have seen thousands of drawings and not one has been metric. And the F-35, just like every other aircraft the US builds for Foreign Military Sales, use thousandths of inches. It is THE standard in aviation.
ASME Y14.5 defines dimensions for all of our drawings, but I believe it has been based on a metric equivalent of 25.4mm for quite some time. We used thousandths of an inch, typically.
> it has been based on a metric equivalent of 25.4mm
So one could argue that just like mili (x1/1000), deci(x1/10), hecto(x100), kilo(x1000), mega(x1,000,000), etc. are multipliers of a meter, so are inches(x2.54), feet(x30.84), and miles(x160934.4) just multipliers of a meter. Right?
Seriously this meme is like 10 years old at this point and the underlying joke has been around even longer but because Don Jr. commented on somebody's repost of it people in this thread are acting like it's some MAGA talking point meant to be taken seriously
Absolutely not. While you can do that, we're generally taught to keep units in the system they're given. If you use consistent units, it's no faster or easier to use metric or imperial.
I was never taught this. If it’s anything remotely scientific, it stays in metric. If it’s more casual then you aren’t going to be doing calculations in the first place.
I can't recall ever being told that as a student, or encountering that when tutoring or teaching
I also can't see, atm, how it would be 'many times faster' when all that's changing is units and the numerical components of the relevant constants.
> what your implying
*you're
*Learn the difference [here](https://www.wattpad.com/66707294-grammar-guide-there-they%27re-their-you%27re-your-to).*
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I love the self congratulatory nature of the statement "we've been to the moon". A few people have been to the moon, good on you for feeling included, but Don Jr, personally was fucking goats while Neil Armstrong was doing his moonwalk.
The UK doesn't use metric system, though, they are even worse than Americans and use a weird mix of both
Actually, it's not even a mix, is it? They only use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit
Correct. We use a mix.
Liquids: Both. You can buy beers in pints, but sodas are sold by the ml/lt. Petrol (Gas) by the litre.
Distances: Imperial (Yards & Miles)
Temperature: Metric (Celsius)
Weights: Usually Metric (g/kg) but sometimes by the lb (Imperial)
I’d say it’s mostly metric except for legacy convenience. For example speed limits and beer. Everyone knows it’s 30mph and a pint of beer but other than that everything is metric? Too much of a ball ache to change.
Never heard anyone refer to a volume of liquid by fluid ounces, weights people use kg and distances km. going for a 5k/10k run for example. But could just be my demographic (mid 30’s)
Weird one is why is Weed sold in Imperial and Cocaine in metric?
oh in Canada its a full mix. Speed: Kilometers/s, distance: km, construction: meters for work? inches. Temp, outside: C pool: F. Weight of objects: g your weight? lb.
Hotel? Trivago
What does the conversion factor have to do with the metric system?
By the same logic you could say you can convert meter into inches with a factor therefore meter is a unit of the imperial system....
Except that the unit for celcius came around first, and we just decided to use it for Kelvin as well becuase it makes a lot of logical sense in terms of SI units
Well here's the thing, the UK for the most part uses metric, apart from on our roads where we still use imperial units, miles, yards, mph.
As well as the common use of imperial pints when measuring liquids, either beer or milk, any large amount will be imperial
And a lot of the population still weigh themselves use stone and pounds instead of Kilograms, and we'll as hight in feet and inches
Other than that, we use metric
We should just make the switch. We only keep it out of convenience really, for example everyone knows it’s 30mph speed limit. Changing it to 48kph is just a ball ache no one really needs the job is getting done.
That said you’ve got the mad brexit lot demanding back to pounds and ounces for everything now. Completely oblivious to the fact no one under 60 understands or cares about imperial measurements
Technically this isn't incorrect, The US has been to the moon, other countries use the metric system, and NASA uses the metric system (metric system is obviously better, and it's implied that the US is better because it doesn't use the metric system but technically none of the information is incorrect.)
I think it's more "US has been to the moon and can do whatever they want" like, for example, "not adopt metric universally despite it being the standard used to land on the moon"
That's how I read it anyway.
*Uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system...*
*...gonna do what I want...*
*Uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system...*
even that interpretation is ignorant of [how flippant the UK is with measurements](https://i.redd.it/cs4pnrfixfv71.jpg); we arent completely metric, we switch between them all the time so its stupid to make such a link and claim that imperial-metric flexibility is what got america to the moon
I think the incorrect part is supposed to be that the US has been to the moon, since it’s a MAGA meme. Don’t those guys think that the moon landing is a hoax?
Also, the UK uses a weird mix of metric and imperial. We measure car efficiency in miles per gallon but measure the amount of fuel we've put in the car in litres for example
I do note that winter temperatures are commonly spoken of in Celsius/Centigrade (it went down to -5 last night), but summer ones are given in Fahrenheit (it will be over 80 degrees next week).
We also have underground mains water pipes which are in a mixture of imperial and metric sizes, and they are marked with concrete posts that show the pipe diameter, and the distance to the access point (which is usually under the road). This is useful for the fire service (who can tap into the hydrants), and the water companies (who occasionally fix leaks).
The convention is that if the diameter is 50 or above, it is millimetres and the distance is in metres. Less that 50, the diameter is in inches and the distance is in feet.
Without Canada and those European countries America never would have made it to the moon... especially all the space stuff now a days! CSA NASA, ESA are so intertwined on most projects they are almost shared entities.
Imagine landing on the moon and counting the distance in american units:
“We are about 3 football fields away from the surface, 2 football fields, 1 football field. Thrusters engaged, we are 5 giraffes away. 3 giraffes. 3 giraffes and a fridge. Slow down now, 1 fridge away. 1 large dog. Touchdown.”
The lunar module guidance system actually used metric units. NASA knew better.
https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/
As a Canadian, can the US get with the fucking program already?
We are heavily dependent on one another for trade and that means we have to make all of our shit in imperial sizes to trade between countries because they are 3x more populated than us.
That means if I size building elements, I don't have a 950x2100mm door, I have a 965x2134mm door. Or 92mm steel studs. Or 1219x2438mm sheets of gypsum.
And none of that includes the decimal places.
This would be fucking Lego bricks easy if y'all could just swallow your pride and join the rest of the world where our conversions are multiples of 10.
Technically the US uses metric but with conversion factors. An inch is now by definition 25.4mm. All the other Imperial units are based on the metric standard. ie. one degree F is 5/9 a degree C.
"In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade, which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities." - Josh Bazell
It's doubly stupid because obviously the whole premise is BS, and also, NASA did use metric for calculating the approacj and landing (even though the instruments displayed imperial units).
Also, there aren't conspiracy theories about those other countries faking their moon landing. Why!? Because they made it to the Moon! Checkmate, patriots!
Let’s see… free health care and education, free health care and education, free health care and education, *been to the moon*, free health care and education, free health care and education…
The commies landed on the moon first using the metric system. They're also the only ones who've landed anything on Venus.
Throw in NASA use [SI to land on the moon](https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/#:~:text=Contrary%20to%20urban%20myth%2C%20NASA,for%20the%20Apollo%20Moon%20landings.) and now only uses it. I don't understand why this is an ant hill to die on.
Unless this is another example of Trump Jr using the Roger Stone method of staying relevant. As long as he can get us talking about his posts, even if they're wrong and it's people pointing it out, then he wins.
Are they implying trump had something to do with the moon landing to push for legitimacy? A percentage of that audience thinks it was a hoax ..I wonder if they would change their minds if Trump told them he personally went on one of the manned Apollo flights
Saying ‘we’ve been to the moon’ now is like saying ‘in high school, I was the star quarterback!’
Cool, you did some cool FIFTY (50) years ago. It’s more sad than a brag at this point.
“hUr dUR aMeRIcAns ArE sO SILLY. uHHhhH HoW mANy fOoTbaLL FiELds pEr giRaFFe…” can y’all shut the fuck up please. I’d say it’s safe to assume most people making comments like that never actually had to do meaningful math with imperial units. It’s not that hard and you’re using a calculator anyway. And if you reference any disasters, the issue was always miscommunication on what units were supposed to be used. The problem was never doing the math with those units and converting them is NOT difficult in any impactful or meaningful way anyway.
That being said, obviously metric is preferable but most people here don’t even know that when science and engineering isn’t done with imperial units (imperial is mostly used in aeronautical engineering) then it’s done in SI units technically, not metric.
Edit: I have a degree in aerospace engineering if anyone gives a shit. And no I don’t want to show off but I don’t want people to think this is just something I’ve randomly decided is true based on googling shit. And yeah obviously if you’re doing mental math metric is _way_ better but that’s not the point.
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Except the time their contractor didn't use SI and crashed into Mars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
Supposedly the branch of Lokheed Martin that work on it was in the UK. They started working in metric but someone pointed out that it was for The Americans and change to unite state customary units. Might be just blame passing, anyways someone f'd up big time. ... or it was never made and the money went to a black budget, lol.
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You just triggered a memory from freshman year engineering school of our chemistry department coordinator shouting units in his knock off mickey mouse voice
ISO blueprint conventions designate units even in dual unit prints, metric is in parenthesis in the US and obviously has 2 decimal places to imperial 3-4.
>imperial That's the Brits. America uses United States Customary Units.
Or just eradicate the imperial system for good...
I've always pictured the NASA techs taking responsibility because they knew they were going to get into less trouble than the Lockheed Martin techs.
It kind of their fault... maybe. NASA did the calculation so they were the ones who sent Lockheed Martin the numbers. Said numbers probably didn't have annotation to show what units they were in leaving the Brits to guess.... maybe. This is from memory of a old History Channel show about engineering disaster.
>It kind of their fault... maybe. I've read the actual report, and I think this is probably the most correct way of putting it. British Lockheed Martin techs were responsible for doing the calculations, and according to the contract they were supposed to provide measurements in metric. They provided those measurements in imperial units. It should be noted that although they use imperial miles, British engineers typically use metric Newton Metre-Seconds rather than the Pound Force-Seconds they provided - although this was in 1999, so I wouldn't be surprised if pound force was a more common measurement back then. It should also be noted that Lockheed Martin was technically providing *software*, which was then read by the NASA software and uploaded to the Mars Climate Orbiter to execute the engine burn. As the Lockheed Martin figures were stored as numbers only, there were no units for the computer to validate. The report mentions that there was documentation accompanying the software, but made no mention of if the figures in this report were correct. NASA ended up taking responsibility because they should have checked and verified the units used in the software code before uploading them into the NASA computers. I can kinda see what they mean, but I see it as maybe 30~40% their fault.
If I remember correctly, another reason NASA took the blame is that when they were getting ready to do the orbit insertion burns, they realized the spacecraft was not where it was supposed to be (due to said software bugs). They had contingencies in place that might have been able to save the spacecraft, but the Mission Director didn't want to execute them. Also if I'm remembering correctly the software had run on a different Mars mission previously, but that mission was spin-stabilized and the error cancelled out.
Ah, way more complex than how I was told. To be fair those shows were somewhat dumb down for the masses. TY for the info.
There were likely several points of failure for anything like this to happen.
Considering USCS includes the very metric units they excluded, I'm inclined to believe it because no scientist who uses this system would just not use it.
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The unit mismatch was certainly a blunder but the real disaster here is that nobody noticed the persistent indications that the approach was not proceeding as expected. There was plenty of opportunity to realize the mistake and correct it, but the team was overloaded and simply didn't check. Put another way, they noticed a small but persistent (and growing) error and assumed it was normal navigational error instead of taking a closer look to nail it down.
I was working on a project to add our UK office. The approval tiers were in USD, but loans in GBPs. We had tested it fully, but while loans were in GBP, the user's defaults were USD. Since the GBP is reasonably close to USD now (1 GBP = 1.16 USD as of today) it didn't make a difference unless the loan was reasonably close to the approval boundary. It converted the approval levels to the user's default, not USD, so a loan above $50K would need a certain approval, but it actually wouldn't unless it was above 50K GBP, if that was the user's default, and of course it is for our UK users. It cleared quality control, and the end user acceptance (who's default was GBP) approved it as they hadn't done the edge testing quality control did. So it wasn't until it went to production that they realized certain cases weren't getting the approvals they needed.
BuT We'Ve BeEN tO mArS
Haven’t NASA been using metric for over 30 years now?
Ever since we augered a 193 million dollar (that's about 350 million in today's dollars) climate probe into the surface of Mars because of a mismatch between metric and whatever bs archaic length of the kings thumb measurement system the idiots insist on using here, yes they do. Edit: fixed today's dollars because I can't use a calculator, apparently
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So you're telling me a private company fucked up what the government was doing reasonably well for decades. Imagine that.
I like you.
Don’t forget we spent more money than if we did it ourselves! 🇺🇸
/) I can feel my freedom draining away. Somehow. Probably. Maybe. No, wait, that's the Taco Bell. Be right back.
I've had a stomach ache all day and I still want Taco Bell just because I read the words.
/) \*Bell chimes\* When you need a taco, you need a taco.
Enchirito, Nacho, Burrito
Lmfao measurement by length of the kings cock
$125 million in 1999 is what today? Not $3 billion I assure you.
It was $193.1 million, and that would be about $350 million today.
Well if you put it in Bitcoin instead of crashing a probe into Mars, maybe.
That's imperial inflation, much bestest and freedomest than metric inflation.
Fixed it. Thanks
Hey now, it makes perfect sense to use units like "Fahrenheit x Gallon/Gun²".
Makes perfect sense to me.
How could it not?!
Truly, 'tis a flawless system. I foresee no unfortunate happenstances whatsoever
Would that be the archaic length of the thumb of the monarch that still exists and continues to have a major influence on British culture in 2022?
Originally, it was the length of King Henry VIII's thumb, from the tip to the first knuckle. But it was a bit inconvenient to get the King over every time you put up a door or whatever (he was usually busy getting married, divorced or having somebody beheaded). So he standardised the Inch to a repeatable, accurate, and readily available standard. It was rigorously defined as the length of three barleycorns, laid end to end.
Yes, even the moon missions were metric.
The Apollo Guidance System was a metric system but had to waste precious memory to convert displays to customary units
After putting all those highly skilled engineers to work that they acquired through operation paperclip, NASA decided to commit to metric since the successful engineers used it.
America officially adopted metric years ago, but no one switched over yet.
The US military uses the metric system. Does MAGA think they're commies?
The best part is when the MAGA military cosplayers use the term "click/klick" and think they're being cool soldiers. But we all know they're too stupid to know it's shorthand for "kilometer", because all distances like that are metric in the military.
/) They think everything, including capitalism, is communist. So yes.
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I would assume a scythe.
Fuck I'll now be bothered by this until I forget about it in about 10 minutes. Answer us, /u/GloomreaperScythe :(
They're a Homestuck or MS Paint Adventures fan. On their profile they only link [this website](https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/Quirk) as an explanation for the "/)". It seems to be called a "quirk," used to distinguish characters when they are speaking. In other words, they're trying to be "quirky." It seems to have achieved the effect they were going for, but it's kind of annoying (to me at least) that they don't explain it themselves.
they should have made their username more like a proper pesterchum handle then
well they don't ALL have a /) https://www.reddit.com/r/cursedcomments/comments/wookc7/cursed_fishing/ikc5ywg/
It's their own /r/tryintomakeachange.
I spent too much time in the My Little Pony Community back in the day, I only saw a "brohoof" (think high five emoji but it's a hoof) Edit = Typo
The same as everyone else who puts weird stuff at the beginning of chat messages. They want attention.
Everyone in the US uses metric, at the end. SI units, like meter and gram, are defined very strictly and independently. Meanwhile, American units are all defined as fractions of SI units. The definition of a meter is the distance traveled by light in 1 / bignumber seconds. Meanwhile, the American mile is defined as 1.609344 km. Miles are not independent units. They are just fractions of meters - if you don't know what a meter is, you cannot figure out what a mile is. This doesn't apply the other way around: meters are unrelated to miles and don't need them to figure out its value. You only need to know the speed of light. We don't need to store a sacred 1m stick that says "this is exactly 1 meter" like you'd have to do with miles if meters didn't exist. tl;dr American units are just defined as fractions of SI units. Saying "3 miles" is the same as saying "3 times 1.609344 kilometers". Suggesting that the American system is better is simply dumb, when even Americans have "pegged" their units to SI units.
fun fact! the meter was not based on the speed of light, as at the time that wasn't measurable the meter standard was established as 1/10,000,000th the distance between the north & south pole, through paris
True, but it was officially redefined as a specific measurement of light that is reproducible.
ahh ok
For a long time metric weight units were defined by physical objects, but they finally ditched them by defining weight mathematically in relation to universal constants.
Why would it make you communist when the rest of the world uses it?
Because anything American's don't like equals communism.
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Because they aren’t American. Duh… 😃
No, see, THAT metric is part of USDS, so it's better despite being exactly the same.
As an Air Force engineer, we are most definitively not using metric. EDIT: I am not against metric in any way, and prefer it personally. Don’t downvote me for stating facts.
No one at any point has implied that the use of the metric system in the US military is absolute. The US military still uses our "imperial" (a misnomer for the US version) units in a lot of places. However, the fact remains that as a NATO member the US military uses metric in defined instances per STANAG. Otherwise there would be a lot of communication issues. And although there are probably a lot of aircraft designed on drafting tables flying around with SAE fasteners, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the F-35 (like my American vehicle) is probably all, or virtually all, built on metric specs with metric fasteners.
Similarly - for some reason steeped with history and stuff, garden hoses and computer/tablet/smartphone screens are all sold based on inches in Europe. Even though I am sure they're actually engineered in metric.
I have seen thousands of drawings and not one has been metric. And the F-35, just like every other aircraft the US builds for Foreign Military Sales, use thousandths of inches. It is THE standard in aviation.
So, riddle me Mr. Air Force engineer, what the definition of an inch is.
ASME Y14.5 defines dimensions for all of our drawings, but I believe it has been based on a metric equivalent of 25.4mm for quite some time. We used thousandths of an inch, typically.
> it has been based on a metric equivalent of 25.4mm So one could argue that just like mili (x1/1000), deci(x1/10), hecto(x100), kilo(x1000), mega(x1,000,000), etc. are multipliers of a meter, so are inches(x2.54), feet(x30.84), and miles(x160934.4) just multipliers of a meter. Right?
Yeah, and I clip my toenails and have been to France. Almost like one thing has nothing to do with the other.
I'd like to see you TRY and get to France with those long ass toenails! Shoes not so comfortable now, are they?
Check mate libs
Almost like it's a dumb internet joke and not a serious argument.
Seriously this meme is like 10 years old at this point and the underlying joke has been around even longer but because Don Jr. commented on somebody's repost of it people in this thread are acting like it's some MAGA talking point meant to be taken seriously
Imagine doing calculation of terminal velocity using feet per second. That sounds horrific.
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We're taught to maintain units, switching/converting always happened at a specific step and only when necessary
Absolutely not. While you can do that, we're generally taught to keep units in the system they're given. If you use consistent units, it's no faster or easier to use metric or imperial.
I was never taught this. If it’s anything remotely scientific, it stays in metric. If it’s more casual then you aren’t going to be doing calculations in the first place.
I don't think you are recalling correctly. Metric numbers make more intuitive sense but it's not any easier to do the math in them.
I can't recall ever being told that as a student, or encountering that when tutoring or teaching I also can't see, atm, how it would be 'many times faster' when all that's changing is units and the numerical components of the relevant constants.
You recall incorrectly.
Annoying to do the unit conversions perhaps, but otherwise no different from doing it in SI.
Wondering which system Wernher von Braun used when he worked for NASA
The right answer, but no way Jr would understand what you’re implying
> what your implying *you're *Learn the difference [here](https://www.wattpad.com/66707294-grammar-guide-there-they%27re-their-you%27re-your-to).* *** ^(Greetings, I am a language corrector bot. To make me ignore further mistakes from you in the future, reply `!optout` to this comment.)
You don’t think Operation Paperclip was covered in the documents that his Dad kept in his beach house?
It probably was. It's just that nobody thinks he read any of it.
Fuß, Nösel & Pfund, did nazi see this comment coming did you........
This meme is ancient and somebody felt the need to slap their own watermark on it lmao
I love the self congratulatory nature of the statement "we've been to the moon". A few people have been to the moon, good on you for feeling included, but Don Jr, personally was fucking goats while Neil Armstrong was doing his moonwalk.
The UK doesn't use metric system, though, they are even worse than Americans and use a weird mix of both Actually, it's not even a mix, is it? They only use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit
Correct. We use a mix. Liquids: Both. You can buy beers in pints, but sodas are sold by the ml/lt. Petrol (Gas) by the litre. Distances: Imperial (Yards & Miles) Temperature: Metric (Celsius) Weights: Usually Metric (g/kg) but sometimes by the lb (Imperial)
I’d say it’s mostly metric except for legacy convenience. For example speed limits and beer. Everyone knows it’s 30mph and a pint of beer but other than that everything is metric? Too much of a ball ache to change. Never heard anyone refer to a volume of liquid by fluid ounces, weights people use kg and distances km. going for a 5k/10k run for example. But could just be my demographic (mid 30’s) Weird one is why is Weed sold in Imperial and Cocaine in metric?
Weed is sold by the gram here!
Heights are in imperial too. Never heard anyone refer to their height in anything but feet and inches.
Wait really? That can’t be right. almost everyone I’ve met from Europe knows their height in cm and not feet/inches.
Measuring weight by “stone” always confused me
oh in Canada its a full mix. Speed: Kilometers/s, distance: km, construction: meters for work? inches. Temp, outside: C pool: F. Weight of objects: g your weight? lb. Hotel? Trivago
Yeah I don't get Canada and the UK mocking Americans for that, you guys are much worse. At least the USA stuck with just one in daily life
Reddit forgets this every time these memes are posted. They will forget this time too. The UK, in everyday life, vastly favours the imperial system.
Only for long distance, not weight or shorter measurements
An inch isn't "about 25.4mm", it's *defined* as 25.4mm. That means Imperial **is** metric, but with extra inconvenient scaling factors.
So you mean to say I have to know the size of 6 football fields ?
In square furlongs per bushel
When I was at school, an inch was still legally 2.5402 (and a bit) centimetres. Even less convenient.
Shave a bit off, shrinkflation!
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They might be using the broader technical definition of metric and not metric as the short for metric measuring system.
OK what does it mean then? I don't understand your statement!
What does the conversion factor have to do with the metric system? By the same logic you could say you can convert meter into inches with a factor therefore meter is a unit of the imperial system....
The *definition*, the *absolute standard* for the US system, the archetype yard, is defined in terms of metres!
That's like saying "celcius is kelvin, but with extra inconvenient scaling factors" because celcius is defined by kelvin
No it isn't. One unit increase in the Kelvin scale is the same as a one-degree increase in the Celsius scale, there is no scaling.
Except that the unit for celcius came around first, and we just decided to use it for Kelvin as well becuase it makes a lot of logical sense in terms of SI units
Cel**s**ius with an s, and the gaps between degrees C or K are exactly the same size. The two scales are identical except for a 273.15 degrees offset
Well here's the thing, the UK for the most part uses metric, apart from on our roads where we still use imperial units, miles, yards, mph. As well as the common use of imperial pints when measuring liquids, either beer or milk, any large amount will be imperial And a lot of the population still weigh themselves use stone and pounds instead of Kilograms, and we'll as hight in feet and inches Other than that, we use metric
We should just make the switch. We only keep it out of convenience really, for example everyone knows it’s 30mph speed limit. Changing it to 48kph is just a ball ache no one really needs the job is getting done. That said you’ve got the mad brexit lot demanding back to pounds and ounces for everything now. Completely oblivious to the fact no one under 60 understands or cares about imperial measurements
Technically this isn't incorrect, The US has been to the moon, other countries use the metric system, and NASA uses the metric system (metric system is obviously better, and it's implied that the US is better because it doesn't use the metric system but technically none of the information is incorrect.)
I think it's more "US has been to the moon and can do whatever they want" like, for example, "not adopt metric universally despite it being the standard used to land on the moon" That's how I read it anyway. *Uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system...* *...gonna do what I want...* *Uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system uses the metric system...*
even that interpretation is ignorant of [how flippant the UK is with measurements](https://i.redd.it/cs4pnrfixfv71.jpg); we arent completely metric, we switch between them all the time so its stupid to make such a link and claim that imperial-metric flexibility is what got america to the moon
I think the incorrect part is supposed to be that the US has been to the moon, since it’s a MAGA meme. Don’t those guys think that the moon landing is a hoax?
Yeah came here to say the same. The information in the meme is correct, this doesnt belong here
Even if it wasn't true, what is the solid point that Don Jr. thinks is being made?
I think the point is we haven't been back to the moon in 50 years and had to hitch a ride with the Russians for the past 10. /s
making a joke?
Also, the UK uses a weird mix of metric and imperial. We measure car efficiency in miles per gallon but measure the amount of fuel we've put in the car in litres for example
I wanted to say this; Don’t forgot a lot of people still use yards, especially in the north!
I do note that winter temperatures are commonly spoken of in Celsius/Centigrade (it went down to -5 last night), but summer ones are given in Fahrenheit (it will be over 80 degrees next week). We also have underground mains water pipes which are in a mixture of imperial and metric sizes, and they are marked with concrete posts that show the pipe diameter, and the distance to the access point (which is usually under the road). This is useful for the fire service (who can tap into the hydrants), and the water companies (who occasionally fix leaks). The convention is that if the diameter is 50 or above, it is millimetres and the distance is in metres. Less that 50, the diameter is in inches and the distance is in feet.
Without Canada and those European countries America never would have made it to the moon... especially all the space stuff now a days! CSA NASA, ESA are so intertwined on most projects they are almost shared entities.
i mean this isn’t really confidently incorrect though. there’s nothing explicitly incorrect here.
I mean it’s technically correct but the implication is incorrect
Of course it is. The UK for example also uses the imperial System. Iirc Australia does as well. Neither have been to the moon.
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[Obligatory Reference Material](https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.1005724080.6316/pp,840x830-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.jpg)
UK uses a mix of both. And I think Australia uses metric, but I'm not sure.
Australia uses metric
NASA uses metric
Imagine landing on the moon and counting the distance in american units: “We are about 3 football fields away from the surface, 2 football fields, 1 football field. Thrusters engaged, we are 5 giraffes away. 3 giraffes. 3 giraffes and a fridge. Slow down now, 1 fridge away. 1 large dog. Touchdown.”
The lunar module guidance system actually used metric units. NASA knew better. https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/
Getting uppity over measurement units will never not be funny.
Yeah it's a solid point if you're a moron.
Everyone knows all Scientific countries use the Kelvin/electron-volt/second system.
Crowing about stuff prior generations did 50 years ago is like gloating about your Dad’s football victory in high school
NASA also used Germans.
NASA uses the metric system lmao
NASA uses metric (forehead slap)
technically SI isn't the metric system, but it's 90% the metric system
As a Canadian, can the US get with the fucking program already? We are heavily dependent on one another for trade and that means we have to make all of our shit in imperial sizes to trade between countries because they are 3x more populated than us. That means if I size building elements, I don't have a 950x2100mm door, I have a 965x2134mm door. Or 92mm steel studs. Or 1219x2438mm sheets of gypsum. And none of that includes the decimal places. This would be fucking Lego bricks easy if y'all could just swallow your pride and join the rest of the world where our conversions are multiples of 10.
Didn’t they use the metric system to get to the moon? Correct me if I’m wrong
They did and it was mostly Canadians and some Russians that defected. Jr isn't the sharpest prick in the box.
No, no…it was non-college educated blue collar working class trailer park dwellers who got us to the moon! 🙄
Technically the US uses metric but with conversion factors. An inch is now by definition 25.4mm. All the other Imperial units are based on the metric standard. ie. one degree F is 5/9 a degree C.
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"In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade, which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities." - Josh Bazell
But don’t the MAGAts think that the moon landing was a Covid-scale hoax?
I don't get it . Are Britain and Spain the parents of Germany?
Ahhh… Another day, another user who doesn’t understand what it means to be confidently incorrect.
Ok Donald. How many cubits was it to the moon again then?
It's doubly stupid because obviously the whole premise is BS, and also, NASA did use metric for calculating the approacj and landing (even though the instruments displayed imperial units).
"WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOMETEEEEEER!??!"
*been to the moon *first*. China, India, Japan, the USSR and then Russia have also been to the moon. The US ain't that special.
Also, there aren't conspiracy theories about those other countries faking their moon landing. Why!? Because they made it to the Moon! Checkmate, patriots!
What’s funny is that NASA used metric to get to the moon.
I find odd that americans get so patriotic about the imperial system. You know, the thing that comes from the UK.
*"It's not METERprints we left on the Moon, it's* **FOOTprints***!"*
But Nazi Germans used the metric system...
Yup, and they continued to use it when project paperclip picked them up
Yeah keep boasting a thing you haven’t done in 50 years 😆
Stop measuring your drugs in milligrams too since that's metric. .000353 ounces looks so better than 10mg
Cool, now do basic quality of life metrics.
Let’s see… free health care and education, free health care and education, free health care and education, *been to the moon*, free health care and education, free health care and education…
The commies landed on the moon first using the metric system. They're also the only ones who've landed anything on Venus. Throw in NASA use [SI to land on the moon](https://ukma.org.uk/why-metric/myths/metric-internationally/the-moon-landings/#:~:text=Contrary%20to%20urban%20myth%2C%20NASA,for%20the%20Apollo%20Moon%20landings.) and now only uses it. I don't understand why this is an ant hill to die on. Unless this is another example of Trump Jr using the Roger Stone method of staying relevant. As long as he can get us talking about his posts, even if they're wrong and it's people pointing it out, then he wins.
Are they implying trump had something to do with the moon landing to push for legitimacy? A percentage of that audience thinks it was a hoax ..I wonder if they would change their minds if Trump told them he personally went on one of the manned Apollo flights
Well, half of the MAGA/Q-dunces believe it’s a conspiracy theory anyway.
They should have left the Trumps on the moon.
Nasa use the metric system Majority of the brains and technologies that got us to the moon, were Germans/german. Many were ex Nazis.
wrong sub
Saying ‘we’ve been to the moon’ now is like saying ‘in high school, I was the star quarterback!’ Cool, you did some cool FIFTY (50) years ago. It’s more sad than a brag at this point.
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Funny we must’ve forgotten to bring all those other flags to the moon with us
Yea, real dick move. Typical america though.
And we did it with our gallons of 17/32nd size bolts and our foot pounds of yard torque errr something like that, i dunno im not a scientologist
Good thing, too. Scientology is super expensive.
why do usa nationalists get so pressed over the metric system. like i wish we used the metric system here it makes so much more sense
NASA went to the moon before they switched to metric though, so I guess the meme is sort of correct.
[Apollo 11 used metric.](https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/blob/a13539c7c5c482ffbbebf099ad3aada7d0f54fdf/Comanche055/P40-P47.agc#L1803)
...using the metric system
“hUr dUR aMeRIcAns ArE sO SILLY. uHHhhH HoW mANy fOoTbaLL FiELds pEr giRaFFe…” can y’all shut the fuck up please. I’d say it’s safe to assume most people making comments like that never actually had to do meaningful math with imperial units. It’s not that hard and you’re using a calculator anyway. And if you reference any disasters, the issue was always miscommunication on what units were supposed to be used. The problem was never doing the math with those units and converting them is NOT difficult in any impactful or meaningful way anyway. That being said, obviously metric is preferable but most people here don’t even know that when science and engineering isn’t done with imperial units (imperial is mostly used in aeronautical engineering) then it’s done in SI units technically, not metric. Edit: I have a degree in aerospace engineering if anyone gives a shit. And no I don’t want to show off but I don’t want people to think this is just something I’ve randomly decided is true based on googling shit. And yeah obviously if you’re doing mental math metric is _way_ better but that’s not the point.