3 ms·

Yep happened once in 50 years of space travel. Ugh, we get it, everyone thinks they're being cute and its a way to mock US units. Yes, yes, this isn't getting

• Gring 14y ago
  But you have to admit the "guy insists on doing things unnecessarily complicated and falls on his face" trope has a strangely entertaining aspect to it :)
• wallflower 14y ago
  The most famous smallest but most significant human error was Mariner I: "The error had occurred when a symbol was being transcribed by hand in the specification for the guidance program. The writer missed the superscript bar (or overline) in [the formula] by which was meant "the nth smoothed value of the time derivative of a radius R". Without the smoothing function indicated by the bar, the program treated normal minor variations of velocity as if they were serious, causing spurious corrections that sent the rocket off course. It was then destroyed by the Range Safety Officer." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_1
• drivebyacct2 14y ago
  As an American, I would prefer that the stubbornness continue to be mocked in a hope that someday we might get rid of this silly system.