Martin Rundkvist2d ago

You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.

"Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing."

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/02/artemis-ii-flight-day-2-orion-completes-tli-burn-crew-begins-journey-to-the-moon/

#space #artemis #nasa

Artemis II Flight Day 2: Orion Completes TLI Burn, Crew Begins Journey to the Moon - NASA

NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon.

NASA
Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

OFFS "On the station, crews rely on more than 4,000 pounds of exercise hardware spread across roughly 850 cubic feet." 🙄

#science #nasa #artemis

Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

NASA's use of Imperial measurements is similar to if US biologists started using species names in the Texas dialect instead of in Latin.

#science #nasa #artemis #space

Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.

Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.

#science #nasa #artemis #space

Show threadDavid Scott Moyer2d ago
@mrundkvist It is frustrating as well for the hundreds of millions of Americans who had no choice of measurement standards in school or everyday life, most of whom neither wear dungarees nor play banjo. Every day I am applying complex conversion formulae just to get by in Mexico. I still don't have an innate sense of either metric sizes or celsius temperatures. Metric is easier, but still a struggle. Poor me.
Show threadVeronica Olsen1d ago

@farbel @mrundkvist I mean, it's not like we don't have inches and feet in Europe either. I've had to do conversions all my life too because they're commonly used in many contexts. Since the default is metric, I do the conversion the other way of course, but at the end of the day, it's still an additional cognitive load.

I was just discussing wind speed with my brother, who works at an airport. I'm used to metres per second wind speeds, but they use knots.

Show threadThomas =:-)15h ago
@veronica @farbel @mrundkvist in Europe? After Brexit? Ireland is (fairly) metric since 2005, isn’t it?
Show threadSamuelJohnson

@Tho99 @veronica @farbel @mrundkvist Ireland uses SI and has done for a long time. The pint is the most frequently encountered imperial unit but it's defined in SI units. Distances on road signs are in Km. In NI, still part of the UK, they're in miles.

Brexit has made no difference. A proposal by an arch clown politician in the UK to (Jacob Rees Mogg, aka the minister for the 18th century) revert to Imperial units was essentially laughed out of town.

11:37amWeb
Show threadVeronica Olsen10h ago

@samueljohnson @Tho99 @farbel @mrundkvist Yeah, I wasn't referring to the official standards. It's the same here in Norway. Everything is labelled in metric. A 2-by-4 is labelled 48 by 98 mm, and a 3 inch nail is labelled 75 mm, but a lot of things are still made according to inches, and often referred to by the old units.

Not sure if our feet and inches were exactly the same as the imperial, but all of the old units are standardised and rounded to metric units these days.

Show threadVeronica Olsen10h ago
@samueljohnson @Tho99 @farbel @mrundkvist I owned a house built in 1938, and it was really annoying renovating it because it was built with 3-by-3 and 3-by-6 inch lumber, but not using the 25.4 mm inches. The 3 inch stuff was around 79 mm I think.
Show threadNorman Wilson6h ago
@veronica @samueljohnson @Tho99 @farbel @mrundkvist My house in Canada was built in the 1920s, but has undergone a number of renovations since. The walls contain a mix of 2-inch-by-four-inch 2x4s, modern shrunken 2x4s, and in a few places even-more-modern bent-sheet-metal studs. Not mixed in the same wall, fortunately.
Show threadDavid Scott Moyer10h ago
@veronica @samueljohnson @Tho99 @mrundkvist The joke is, a 2x4 isn't even a 2x4, at least not in the US. It is a 2x4 prior to milling, so in reality measures more like 1 1/2x3 1/2, or 38mmx89mm.
Show threadVeronica Olsen10h ago
@farbel We have 1.5-by-4 and 1.5-by-3 too, which are common for interior walls. At least when I renovated. I seem to remember they were 36x98 and 36x68 mm, respectively. I remember it being annoying that two 1.5-by-3 did not make a square, but 72x68 mm.