You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist checks out
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@mrundkvist It is frustrating as well for the hundreds of millions of Americans who had no choice of measurement standards in school or everyday life, most of whom neither wear dungarees nor play banjo. Every day I am applying complex conversion formulae just to get by in Mexico. I still don't have an innate sense of either metric sizes or celsius temperatures. Metric is easier, but still a struggle. Poor me.
@farbel @mrundkvist I mean, it's not like we don't have inches and feet in Europe either. I've had to do conversions all my life too because they're commonly used in many contexts. Since the default is metric, I do the conversion the other way of course, but at the end of the day, it's still an additional cognitive load.
I was just discussing wind speed with my brother, who works at an airport. I'm used to metres per second wind speeds, but they use knots.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist I’m not reflexively opposed to the use of old-school units (many of them have useful mathematical properties that metric lacks). But in science and engineering contexts, it should be all metric all the time.
I’m fortunate to have been a reasonably bright kid during the two weeks the US made a metric push in the late 70s, and then decently trained in science that I’m reasonably comfortable in both systems.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
Well, these dungaree-wearing banjo players broke the interstellar barrier, did a fly-by of Pluto, and are currently flying a team around the moon.
Ain't nothin' wrong with the banjo.
Long as you do your science right.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist
Both affirmations are true! -
I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist @LabSpokane In the 1970s, I was taught the metric system with the understanding that the country would switch to it with the rest of the world. That never happened. I can convert millimeters in centimeters to inches and feet now and roughly convert meters to yards, but the rest requires deeper thought or a calculator. I wish we had made the change. It's a pain in the ass when everyone else uses metric units and I have to think harder than I should to figure out how much it is.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist @LabSpokane And yes, I'm wearing blue jeans right now. But I don't play the banjo.
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@mrundkvist I actually wear dungarees and play a banjo.
@btrinen @mrundkvist hahaha me too except it's the cello instead of the banjo although I would very much like to learn the banjo.
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@mrundkvist I actually wear dungarees and play a banjo.
@btrinen @mrundkvist
And I vote! -
I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist and it's all because of pirates: https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/22/retro_metric_imperial/
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You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.
"Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing."
Artemis II Flight Day 2: Orion Completes TLI Burn, Crew Begins Journey to the Moon - NASA
NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon.
NASA (www.nasa.gov)
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