How a Single Math Error Caused a $500 Million Satellite to Crash
video description
France- invents own new system and begins to impose on subject nations in Europe. It becomes popular beyond that. It has many virtues to recommend it.
World, a good bit later on- French system looks pretty good. Lets adopt it.
UK, for a while, US to date- Nah- well keep our system, thanks. The conversions seem possible even with humans, pen and paper, never mind with these new -computers- we just invented. Itll work fine. It does.
Internet people of 21st century- The metric system descended fully formed from Olympus to impose order on chaos. Look at those American rubes practising a system of measure they always had just because its theirs instead of doing what everyone else does because it was originally French.
Date: 2023-12-14
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Comments and reviews: 24
-nadiayorc
Most actual people in the UK normally use a weird combination of both systems depending on what thing is being measured.
In my experience, it's feet and inches for people's height, meters for short distances, miles for long distances such as roads (every long distance road sign is in miles, shorter ones can sometimes be in meters or even yards, grams/kg for non-people weights such as food, stone and pounds (lb) for weighing people (sometimes lb/ounces or kg, normally litres for liquids but some people still use gallons or pints (I personally only use and know litres.
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Most actual people in the UK normally use a weird combination of both systems depending on what thing is being measured.
In my experience, it's feet and inches for people's height, meters for short distances, miles for long distances such as roads (every long distance road sign is in miles, shorter ones can sometimes be in meters or even yards, grams/kg for non-people weights such as food, stone and pounds (lb) for weighing people (sometimes lb/ounces or kg, normally litres for liquids but some people still use gallons or pints (I personally only use and know litres.
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reallifelore
We had a similar problem with Air Canada ground and air crew in the Gimli Glider incident circa 1986. It was both pilot and ground crew failure to do the job properly, and it was a combination of imperial vs metric and also an older, separate conversion between units of weight and units of volume [or something like that] between ground equipment and aircraft systems. So, several problems there besides the system of measure. But still, widely remembered in Canada even today. As with NASA, maybe if professionals just paid attention and did their jobs.
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We had a similar problem with Air Canada ground and air crew in the Gimli Glider incident circa 1986. It was both pilot and ground crew failure to do the job properly, and it was a combination of imperial vs metric and also an older, separate conversion between units of weight and units of volume [or something like that] between ground equipment and aircraft systems. So, several problems there besides the system of measure. But still, widely remembered in Canada even today. As with NASA, maybe if professionals just paid attention and did their jobs.
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-josephabellojr
A big oversight is that the English DID NOT invent imperial units. The Romans did, and before metric every single country in Europe used imperial, granted different versions of the system. Hence why French feet were different than English feet, or the fact that every European language (especially Romance languages) have names for the imperial units.
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A big oversight is that the English DID NOT invent imperial units. The Romans did, and before metric every single country in Europe used imperial, granted different versions of the system. Hence why French feet were different than English feet, or the fact that every European language (especially Romance languages) have names for the imperial units.
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-Daniel_Huffman
I remember indirectly seeing a Reddit post that showed a news article, which said that a sinkhole measuring -14 washing machines across- had opened up. Someone in the comments then snarked that Americans will literally use anything _but_ the metric system to measure things.
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I remember indirectly seeing a Reddit post that showed a news article, which said that a sinkhole measuring -14 washing machines across- had opened up. Someone in the comments then snarked that Americans will literally use anything _but_ the metric system to measure things.
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reallifelore
I'd really expect NASA and aerospace industry engineers to do their job properly, even if it requires paying attention to unit conversions. If they couldn't do that, maybe they should have joined me on the arts and humanities side of campus instead of trying to be engineers.
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I'd really expect NASA and aerospace industry engineers to do their job properly, even if it requires paying attention to unit conversions. If they couldn't do that, maybe they should have joined me on the arts and humanities side of campus instead of trying to be engineers.
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-DarkTempler1
the video was not made possible by brilliant. It was made by you. They sponsored you so you advertise them to make money. Be honest, your viewers aren't idiots.
Its actually annoying with all the forced advertising you do. I am constantly having to skip past it.
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the video was not made possible by brilliant. It was made by you. They sponsored you so you advertise them to make money. Be honest, your viewers aren't idiots.
Its actually annoying with all the forced advertising you do. I am constantly having to skip past it.
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-breezyx976
-the metric system is logical-
The metric system: make the meter be 1/10000 the distance between the equator and the pole, instead of -1foot, like every other system on the planet because that's a nice length
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-the metric system is logical-
The metric system: make the meter be 1/10000 the distance between the equator and the pole, instead of -1foot, like every other system on the planet because that's a nice length
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-madcat789
Look, Customary Units just feel better to use. I can easily tell a foot from a meter, an ounce to a liter/milliner. Just like how its easier to tell how a person feels from Fahrenheit compared to Celsius
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Look, Customary Units just feel better to use. I can easily tell a foot from a meter, an ounce to a liter/milliner. Just like how its easier to tell how a person feels from Fahrenheit compared to Celsius
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-nousername8162
There are two types of countries: those that use the metric system and those that land on the moon using the metric system, then crash a Mars satellite because they were not using the metric system
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There are two types of countries: those that use the metric system and those that land on the moon using the metric system, then crash a Mars satellite because they were not using the metric system
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-josephramirez2644
The imperial system is better for measuring smaller objects or distances. I'd rather say -this object is 12 inches- than -this object is 304. 8 mm- or this object is. 305 meters-
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The imperial system is better for measuring smaller objects or distances. I'd rather say -this object is 12 inches- than -this object is 304. 8 mm- or this object is. 305 meters-
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-joshuapatrick682
Is this related to NASA trying to convince people Devon Island Canada was Mars in the early to mid 2000-s? That really happened. Just a giant money laundering scheme y-all.
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Is this related to NASA trying to convince people Devon Island Canada was Mars in the early to mid 2000-s? That really happened. Just a giant money laundering scheme y-all.
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-emusunlimited
The lesson here is to follow the damn directions when you're given them. I would love to think that they had to pay for this, but they probably just got a slap on the wrist.
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The lesson here is to follow the damn directions when you're given them. I would love to think that they had to pay for this, but they probably just got a slap on the wrist.
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-aerofiles5044
America: Imperial system of measurement
Rest of the world: Metric system of measurement
RealLifeLore:
-Toyota Corolla system of measurement-
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America: Imperial system of measurement
Rest of the world: Metric system of measurement
RealLifeLore:
-Toyota Corolla system of measurement-
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-fishcereal9940
Britain is still somewhere between metric and imperial because we still use miles instead of kilometers and less often yards instead of meters
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Britain is still somewhere between metric and imperial because we still use miles instead of kilometers and less often yards instead of meters
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-romanulvasi
Guy: metric system is communism
Guy: -looks at map to see wich countries use metric system-
Also guy: oh so the entire world is communist
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Guy: metric system is communism
Guy: -looks at map to see wich countries use metric system-
Also guy: oh so the entire world is communist
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reallifelore
It always takes me a while to actually see how long or heavy things are in your videos, because, unfortunately Im an American.
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It always takes me a while to actually see how long or heavy things are in your videos, because, unfortunately Im an American.
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-movieswithgabe
I got so caught up in how the metric system was spread over the world that I forgot the video was about a math error
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I got so caught up in how the metric system was spread over the world that I forgot the video was about a math error
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-josemoreno6711
There's two types of countries
Those that use the metric system
And those that have landed a man on the moon
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There's two types of countries
Those that use the metric system
And those that have landed a man on the moon
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-alex_zetsu
Why doesn't the data labeled? Even if everyone is talking in metric, newtons and kilonewtons are not the same thing.
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Why doesn't the data labeled? Even if everyone is talking in metric, newtons and kilonewtons are not the same thing.
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-omi807
World: Is that X km long.
USA: no it is Y miles long. hold on it is also Z football fields long.
World: wait. -
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World: Is that X km long.
USA: no it is Y miles long. hold on it is also Z football fields long.
World: wait. -
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-biggiesmol
Choosing the wrong measuring units seems more like a clerical error than a math error. But a costly one nonetheless
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Choosing the wrong measuring units seems more like a clerical error than a math error. But a costly one nonetheless
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-WhiteCheddar.
So you mean math is important to get right? Arent the correct answers racist though? I'm thoroughly confused
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So you mean math is important to get right? Arent the correct answers racist though? I'm thoroughly confused
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-tywag5609
How many yards have the voyager space probes gone. I only care for my theoretical game of god tier space golf.
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How many yards have the voyager space probes gone. I only care for my theoretical game of god tier space golf.
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-mage1over137
I used to grade lab reports and would take off a whole point for missing units. This is basically why.
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I used to grade lab reports and would take off a whole point for missing units. This is basically why.
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