# Metric vs Imperial Units



## civilized_naah (Jul 26, 2012)

Last night I was revisiting the news about the 1999 Mars orbiter failure (the one that occurred due to a miscommunication on units) - don't ask me why, I have forgotten and was reading the comments - there were some doozies there - for example, a guy complaining "pounds is a unit of weight and Newton is a unit of force - God, didn't NASA scientists even take a basic Physics course?" - that one made me smile.

But there was one that was pretty well written, so I decided to share it -

*Regarding the metric system; based on decimals rather than fractions of arbitrary upper values (cf 17/64ths of an inch!) means that calculations can be performed in simpler (read reliable) ways.*

*The US is slowly switching; liquids are now being sold in ml and co-listed with the fl oz equivalents. Where it really matters (eg paediatric nutrition where the tiniest amounts make the difference between life and death) metric systems are already in common use.*

*The real reason why the US will probably never make the jump is down to the 4x8 sheet of plywood off of which every construction project is based. It drives the 16" stud spacing (near as dammit to 0.5m but not close enough to make that possible) and everything degrades from there.*

*Let's at least shift science to the metric system and let those who refuse to follow stay in the dark ages. Wall street managed it....*


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