Degress C or C degress

[Pommie]

( Mickter posted on Funny images )

That theme reminds me of my physics teacher who was fanatical about the differences between degrees centigrade and centigrade degrees. He would have a fit looking at your picture.

Mike.

 

[gophert]

The American version of that meme has one more image of a confused kid asking "why do foreigners think American kids don't know what °C are?"

 

[Pommie]

Whenever I've done calculations on here using SI units a few American posters have argued that it's so much easier using BTU rather than Joules. As a former member of the British Empire I can testify to British Thermal Units being totally confusing.

Mike.

 

[Ylli]

At least it's not shown as °K !

 

[gophert]

Whenever I've done calculations on here using SI units a few American posters have argued that it's so much easier using BTU rather than Joules.

Really? I don't remember any of those posts.

 

[Ylli]

Whenever I've done calculations on here using SI units a few American posters have argued that it's so much easier using BTU rather than Joules.

No, but it *is* much easier using calories than joules. 1 cal = the energy require to raise 1 gram of water 1 C°.

 

[Pommie]

No, but it *is* much easier using calories than joules. 1 cal = the energy require to raise 1 gram of water 1 C°.

Not when doing electronic calculations. And, whats that in °F. BTW, my physics teacher would have liked your statement.

Mike

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I don't know what C° is either. I've heard of °C, °F and Kelvin though.

 

[Pommie]

My physics teacher explained °C is an actual temperature, whereas C° refers to a temperature difference. You can raise a temperature upto 30 °C or you can raise it by 10 C°. Personally, I just think he was being .......


Mike

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

No wonder why the world is so [insert appropriate expletive for messed] messed up.

 

[alec_t]

The importance of using the correct units was dramatically demonstrated in the Hubble space telescope mirror fiasco.

 

[gophert]

The importance of using the correct units was dramatically demonstrated in the Hubble space telescope mirror fiasco.

How was the incorrect assembly of a mirror testing device a dramatic demonstration of the importance of using correct units? And why are people "liking" your confusing story?

You need to brush up on your NASA stories.

Hubble Space Telescope - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[DerStrom8]

How was the incorrect assembly of a mirror testing device a dramatic demonstration of the importance of using correct units? And why are people "liking" your confusing story?

You need to brush up on your NASA stories.

Hubble Space Telescope - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It was long assumed that the error was caused by improper unit usage/conversions, though it seems that may have been disproven later on. The current theory has to do with warping of the lens due to uneven heating.

A better example would be the Mars Climate Orbiter.

 

[gophert]

It was long assumed that the error was caused by improper unit usage/conversions, though it seems that may have been disproven later on.

A better example would be the Mars Climate Orbiter.

I didn't find anything about that on NASA's page on the same topic. I think you may be propagating an urban legend. The Mars Climate Orbiter is the only example (not a "better" example) of unit mixup error at NASA as far as I know.

 

[DerStrom8]

I didn't find anything about that on NASA's page on the same topic. I think you may be propagating an urban legend.

Not propagating, simply pointing out what many people thought versus what was actually determined.

 

[gophert]

Not propagating, simply pointing out what many people thought versus what was actually determined.

Many people? Who? Where were those specultions published? It was the early '90s, so pre-internet, but you should be able to find a publication that quotes one of these many people - I sure couldn't. Was is Many People at the water cooler in your office?

Can you tell that Many People have learned to throw the BS Flag when Some People use the unsubstantiated "Many People are saying..." phrase to add credibility to completely fabricated stories.

 

[DerStrom8]

Many people? Who? Where were those specultions published? It was the early '90s, so pre-internet, but you should be able to find a publication that quotes one of these many people - I sure couldn't. Was is Many People at the water cooler in your office?

Can you tell that Many People have learned to throw the BS Flag when Some People use the unsubstantiated "Many People are saying..." phrase to add credibility to completely fabricated stories.

Who's trying to add credibility to fabricated stories? I'm not denying that it was an urban legend.

Here is a discussion regarding this very subject, also calling out the unit mixup assumption as false.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Many people? Who? Where were those specultions published? It was the early '90s, so pre-internet

Pre-WWW perhaps, but not pre-Internet - the Internet was available in the late 80's, well before browsers and WWW - I was there back then, using DOS prior to Windows Internet programs becoming available. In the early WWW days I even BOUGHT a browser

 

[sagor1]

It's amusing how that Mars article used this sentence:
" The peer review preliminary findings indicate that one team used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. "

The word "English", capitalized, implies British units, but the UK is mostly metric like the rest of the world. The words "English units" should be replaced with "imperial units" to be more factual. I will admit, many countries still use a mix of imperial units and metric units, but most of the world is metric now (SI units). Metric is predominant in science as well, so who ever used imperial in that project was the main cause of the failure. I'm sure the investigation, lead by NASA/JPL, will be like letting the fox investigate who got into the hen house, they will blame the hens...

 

[gophert]

Pre-WWW perhaps, but not pre-Internet - the Internet was available in the late 80's, well before browsers and WWW - I was there back then, using DOS prior to Windows Internet programs becoming available. In the early WWW days I even BOUGHT a browser

yes, I agree that the "internet" was around in the late '80s and I am very proud of you for being on the cutting edge of internet usage. However, you got a few things wrong.
1) the word internet has been around since the 1970s so I assume the network it was named for also existed in the 1970s.
2) I didn't say "before the internet" existed, I said, "pre-internet". If you look up the phrase, pre-internet, you'll realize not all words Have the technical accuracy you would like to see (or like others to have because you actually seem pretty sloppy yourself - see point 1 above). In any case, pre-internet implies a period of time before 1993 or 1994 (before companies started Developing websites, families started getting web access and email.

again, pre-internet was a time, Internet is a network. Two completely different things.

PS, I'm sorry you felt the need to buy a browser. Netscape was always free.