deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
Talking of Radio 4 did anyone get momentarily confused when they played the time pips at 8:23 this morning? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26044798
Heard on the Today programme just now
- Thread starter swansonj
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Ganymede
Veteran
- Location
- Rural Kent
Apparently one of the US Mars landers failed a few years ago because someone used Imperial instead of SI units on one or more of the measurements. I remember reading this but not where, so it could be a big lie!
I can't do Fahrenheit now - I'm planning a trip to the US but cannot work out how cold/warm it is. My colleague used F in summer because it sounds warmer, and C in winter because it sounds colder....
I can't do Fahrenheit now - I'm planning a trip to the US but cannot work out how cold/warm it is. My colleague used F in summer because it sounds warmer, and C in winter because it sounds colder....
OP
OP
swansonj
Guru
Of course it does, it's bound to be correct because that's how the units are defined, and therein lies the point. That it takes 16.4 football pitches of 1 mm rainfall to fill a double decker bus is a statistic that you happen to come across (and your life is the better for it). That all the pumps the environment agency can muster could pump flat out and it would still take 30 days to clear the floods in Somerset is a statistic that you happen to come across. That 1 x 1/1000 = 1/1000 is not a statistic that you happen to come across, it just is, and that a litre is a thousandth of a cubic metre is not a statistic that you happen to come across, it's how it's defined. Anyone who regards that fact as a statistic that you happen to come across is showing a disconnect from any sort of empathy with the fundamental operation of science.
But why is that a surprise, when so few maths specialists are in primary schools, meaning that so few children are taught science or maths by people who actually have an intrinsic sense for the beauty and structure of what they're teaching. And why is it a surprise that so few maths specialists are in primary schools when primary school teaching is barely regarded in society at large as a serious profession to be aspired to only if good enough, let alone paid accordingly. So we get generations of children being taught by people who have a phobia for numbers and can only cope by reducing it all to deliberately arbitrary rules that can be followed without understanding, because that was how they were taught, and so on.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
I remember a story, sadly, it is probably apocryphal, that a satellite was programmed with miles instead of kilometres and it ended up facing out to space, rather than to earth
swee'pea99
Squire
Depends where you're going. It's cold at the top and hot at the bottom, and just right in the middle. Hope that helps.
Ganymede
Veteran
- Location
- Rural Kent
swee'pea99
Squire
Be careful at the edges tho'...very wet.Ta! And the tall bits have white stuff on top...
Ganymede
Veteran
- Location
- Rural Kent
[QUOTE 2912628, member: 9609"]I do that, it all gets a little confusing between 10c and 65f
who thought farenhight up anyway 0 = the point when water saturated with salt freezes - what was all that about[/quote]
Yeah, bonkers. Down with Fahrenheit!!! *starts petition*
*stops petition, realising we don't use it any more anyway. Except my colleague. And Reiver*
*goes to lie down*
who thought farenhight up anyway 0 = the point when water saturated with salt freezes - what was all that about[/quote]
Yeah, bonkers. Down with Fahrenheit!!! *starts petition*
*stops petition, realising we don't use it any more anyway. Except my colleague. And Reiver*
*goes to lie down*
Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
- Location
- Reading
That's more than you said in your original post. Anyway, when I read that quote, I was a bit surprised myself. I know what a litre of water looks like. I know how small a millimetre is. I was surprised that a millimetre of rainfall equated to 1 litre per square metre. That frankly meant more to me than bus-fulls and football pitches.
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
Don't forget Belgium and the Isle of Wight, also commonly used as units. I heard a new one this morning about flooding in Somerset... "an area the size of Guernsey is under water"
And me.
It's more precise* than Celsius.
*Note: I said more precise, not more accurate. So don't start....
I heard the same about the Beagle 2 probe that was never heard from again after touching down on Christmas Day 2003. Probably apocryphal.
Wikipedia suggests it was Mars Climate Orbiter
On the temperature thing, dosn't Tom Lehrer give his age in Celcius, so as to make him appear younger?
classic33
Leg End Member
[QUOTE 2912628, member: 9609"]I do that, it all gets a little confusing between 10c and 65f
who thought farenhight up anyway 0 = the point when water saturated with salt freezes - what was all that about[/quote]
Blame http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit
who thought farenhight up anyway 0 = the point when water saturated with salt freezes - what was all that about[/quote]
Blame http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit
Brandane
The Costa Clyde rain magnet.
Air Canada got a bit confused back in 1983 too. Luckily it had a happy ending.
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