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Bear in mind that the audience of the webcast is not uniformly comfortable with metric units. Using both makes sure that everyone has a sense of the scales invo
by JshWright 7y ago
Bear in mind that the audience of the webcast is not uniformly comfortable with metric units. Using both makes sure that everyone has a sense of the scales involved.
By using them both, it's a good way to give someone who doesn't use metric a basic understanding of the conversions.
- shmerl 7y agoThat's the point. In order to make the public comfortable, metric should be used for them. That's the only way to gain comfort. Not using it only prolongs the issue. The government basically gave up on it, leaving metrication in shambles. So SpaceX is in good position to do something about it. And using one or another intermittently only adds confusion IMHO, unless you literally use both for each value which is even more annoying (at least to me).
- JshWright 7y agoIt's cool that you're so passionate about this, but bear in mind your intitial comment was suggesting that SpaceX was risking a mission failure by mixing units in a broadcast intended for public consumption. The goalposts seem to have drifted a bit here...
- shmerl 7y agoIt's both. Presenting to the public and being consistent. If they are training their own teams to be used to it, it should be consistent everywhere. And public will benefit from it, like above.
- JshWright 7y agoThe SpaceX rep on the broadcast was John "Norminal" Insprucker[1]. Pretty sure he's been sufficiently "trained" in metric units... [1]: https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/col-john-insprucker-usaf https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/col-john-in...
- mikeyouse 7y agoGood lord, I’ve seen him on the broadcasts before but I had no idea that’s what his resume looked like. Incredible.
- JshWright 7y agoYeah, he comes across as a super unassuming dude in the webcasts, but he has definitely "been there, done that" when it comes to putting stuff in space.
- shmerl 7y agoWhich is great, so it would be good to translate that to public commentary with metric too :) Also, surprised to find so many downvotes here. I suppose some still oppose the metrication effort and want to prolong the usage of imperial units, but are too embarrassed to admit it.