Re: summary of summary of weight

[Margaret Mazzolini <mmazzolini@SWIN.EDU.AU>]

> In some respects I appreciate the attempt to make the USCU more
> parallel to mks/SI.  But in doing so we essentially have created a
> third units system at least for some parts of USCU.  Is it any
> wonder we lost the Mars satellite?

 From the other side of the world, it does amaze me that there is
still such a mixture of units used in the US. I don't think that
you'd get many physicists here interested in what the definition of a
poundal (or a slug!) is, outside a history of science setting!

I'm not too surprised about the demise of the Climate Orbiter either,
especially as even highly-polished NASA publicity sites for the
various missions tend to mix metric and Imperial units on the same
page, and even in the one table.

Our conversion to metrics is still far from universal, unfortunately,
but it took firm hold in scientific circles here a long time ago.

Cheers
Margaret


Dr. Margaret Mazzolini,
Astronomy Course Coordinator
Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
BSEE, Swinburne University of Technology
P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia
email: mmazzolini@swin.edu.au
phone: (61 3) 9214 8084   fax:   (61 3) 9819 0856

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