I thought aviation fuel was measured by weight? Given that no lives were lost, some would say that the Mars Climate Orbiter was at least as big a screwup.
Yes, jet fuel is measured in lbs by the pilot (who has to calcualte take-off weight). But it is pumped by VOLUME. The pump jokey on the ground put in liters (as measured by the meter) thinking he was pumping gallons.
There’s got to be more to the story. Was the fuel pump completely unmarked? Did the guy not notice that it took a quarter of the expected time to fuel up? Seems more likely that someone made a math mistake and there was a problem with the onboard “gas gauge”.
“Time is continuous, not incremental.”
TSM, if a) physical space is quantized (and it has been suggested by many physicists that it must be, else quantum mechanics and relativity are incompatible on a very small scale)…and b) the speed of light remains the fastest speed possible…doesn’t it then follow that TIME must be quantized, as well? (As in, the shortest indivisible unit of time is the time required for light to transit the quantum distance.)
Or, to put it more directly, if 3-D space is quantized, doesn’t it make sense that 4-D “time-space” is, as well?
littlemouse, IIRC, the airplane was “MEL’d”* with two broken fuel gauges. After that accident, changes were made and aplane is not allowed to operate (for revenue service) with more than one inop fuel gauge.
*MEL=minimum equipment list=a procedure that allows FAR-121 aircraft to operate with some equipment inoperative. The length of time this is allowed is generally proportional to the importance of the part (i.e. a broken navigation instrument might need to be repaired within 48hrs, but a bad coffe maker might be able to wait a month.)
@littlemouse wins the flag competition!
Quantum mechanics by definition is the study of physics at the subatomic level, wherein it is already accepted that standard laws of physics both Newtonian and Einsteinian are insufficient to explain the behaviors of subatomic particles.
Space can be quantified, and must be to describe it in the language of mathematics, but it is not in itself a quantity of any sort. Time is the same. While we can measure lightwaves in angstroms, lightwaves themselves are what they are. They take no breaks, they readily divide into whatever term we use to express their length. That’s true of all energy waves, light included.
Some quatum physicists even theorize that because the quantum mathematics doesn’t prohibit all time past, future, and present as being simultaneous, it’s possible that all three are happening at once. Sometimes I wonder what these guys must be smokin’.
And you do know that scientists at CERN believe they’ve sent a neutrino faster tham light. I had lunch yesterday with a friend who’s a longtime Los Alamos physicist (he flies himself back and forth). I asked him lightheartedly “how do those guys at CERN know that was the same neutrino?” He laughed and just said “they don’t!”.
we converted the day they announced the change=1"=2.54cm
take your standard 0-1" micrometer,look at it carefully,
now pick up a metric micrometer,0-25mm!
there using the same body!
as you look at the "mikes"as they progress upwards
there in One inch incroments! whos fooling who!!!
(one of the things we pondered in the machineshop!)
when we had machine shops!!!
Thee probably is more to the story, and neither Air Canada, the government or the groundworker’s union will talk about it. The screwup was caused by inattention and was directly caused by the English to Metric changeover.
Lets consider this. Most people don’t like change. Converting might make them think a little. Worse yet, it means doing something now to get a greater benefit later.
Let’s face it, few people can see the advantage of sometimes delaying a gain in order to end up with a larger gain. I guess I am one of the others. My car and home (as well as my kid’s education) are all paid for. I have no debt. Now when I buy something I don’t have to deduct for all the interest I would otherwise be paying.
I'd bet that there is a correlation between those who have debt and those do not wish to change and those who are in favor of changing and have no debt.“And you do know that scientists at CERN believe they’ve sent a neutrino faster tham light.”
I know they don’t.
“Thee probably is more to the story, and neither Air Canada, the government or the groundworker’s union will talk about it.”
Looks like someone spilled the beans.
@ littlemouse
Good digging; this report never made the newspapers. It did give the anti-metric lobby some ammunition. Koodoos to the captain who had not ost his gliding skills.
Joseph, the basis of my enttire argument, which I stand by, is that there is no inherant “greater benefit” to converting to metric except as dictated by the marketplace. If one is producing product that will become part of a larger design for a global market that uses metric, the benefits of designing in metric outweigh the costs. If one it producing a stand alone product, such as a toaster, or is not in a market where trade is done in metric, such as wheat or construction, conversion to metric has zero benefit. It’s as easy to design and manufacture product in inches as it is in centimeters.
It isn’t a technical decision. It’s a market driven cost/benefit decision.
In another thread someone mentioned the cost of gasoline energy in terms of MMBTU per US dollar. I had no idea of what an MMBTU meant. The letter M usually denotes a million. Does MM denote a million million (i.e., 10^12)? No, in America’s quaint, idiosyncratic way, the M refers to the M as used by the ancient Romans, i.e., a thousand. Thus MM refers to a thousand thousand or a million. Only in America.
The above got me to thinking of the conversion of energy into power -
- The American Way (energy expressed in BTUs, power in Horsepower)
- 1 btu = 778.169262... foot-pound (force);
- 1 hp = 550 ft-lbf/sec;
- Divide 778.169262 by 550 to see that 1 btu/sec = 1.4148532... hp.
- The continental European Way (energy expressed in Joules, power in Watts) -
- 1 joule/sec = 1 watt.
I wonder how many Americans even know that a BTU/sec is dimensionally equivalent to horsepower.
In the area of scientific equipment, European engineers are eating America’s lunch. The next time you are in a hospital, notice the number of times you’ll see the names Siemens or Philips on high-end medical equipment, compared to, say, General Electric. In the manufacture of scientific instruments, America is going the way of England. But keep using those BTUs!
I’ve personally never heard of MMBTUs. I’ll stick with good ol’ fashioned British Thermal Units (BTUs).
“Joseph, the basis of my enttire argument, which I stand by, is that there is no inherant “greater benefit” to converting to metric except as dictated by the marketplace.” (the same mountainbike)
I don’t think we disagree on this issue. While I would tend to believe there is a small long term advantage, it is not really significant. It will take a generation to benefit and even then the benefits will not be serious. Still the logical me says that there is a benefit and even thought it is rather small, we should consider it.
Thought the Congess of the U.S. adopted the metric system in 1889 as our offical system of measurement.Has anyone noticed how long sparkplug threads have been metric?-Kevin
MMBTU is a million BTUs (M is one thousand, MM is a million, thank the Romans), which is used extensively in the Nrht American energy industry, as natural gas is priced in dollars/million BTUs. One million BTUs is also close in value to Gigajoules, a billion Joules.
In the US you are paying for gas by the “therm”, this is a smaller unit than a million BTUs, like 100,000 BTUs. It’s strictly a term used by the utilities to make billing more understandable by the homeowner. So, if gas sells for $5.00 per MMBTU. it will sell for 50 cents per therm, a much more palatable figue. Check your gas bill. Of course you will use 10 times more therms than MMBTUs or Gigajoules.
On the international market gas is priced in Gigajoules, while in North America is is trade in MMBTUs.
Thanks doc. Got it. I’m not used to seeing roman numerals and alphabetical acronyms mixed together. It threw me.
Mechanicker…I hope I read your comment correctly…but I agree if I did. Not converting to the metric system at large is, I agree, not a cause of engineering failure. Nor is it a cause for poor engineering performance and preparation by our education system. It’s the failure of our political system and the will of our people to change. But though not a cause, failure to adopt the metric system at large is one heck of a symptom and characteristic of failure. Just like arrogance is as well.