On 2009/03/28, at 10:44 PM, John M. Steele wrote:
I graduated from MIT a few years after Smoot. All of my courses
were taught exclusively in SI, called rationalized mksa at the
time. When a rare Customary units homework problem was thrown in
the mix, the expected solution (required for full credit) was to
convert to metric, solve, convert the answer back to Customary if
the problem demanded.
Dear John,
This looks a lot like you are describing the approach taken by the
Mars Climate Orbiter teams at NASA in 1999. This is true except for
the bit where you say, 'convert the answer back to Customary'. Go to http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/mco991110.html
where they say 'The 'root cause' of the loss of the spacecraft was
the failed translation of English units into metric units …'
However, please note that in reporting this, I am not in any way
suggesting that NASA should change to smoots for interplanetary
navigation.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
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