smithsp86
smithsp86 t1_j63rhix wrote
Reply to comment by gravi-tea in TIL to decide what measurement system America should use, John Quincy Adams took 3 1/2 years to produce a 268 page Report on Weights and Measures that ultimately concluded changing to the French metric system would be too difficult for the young nation. Congress took no action on the report. by iamveryDerp
A furlong is 1/8th of a mile and a chain is 66 feet. So it's just a matter of doing a bit of multiplication. Chain is a super useful measure because most surveying measures are whole multiples of a chain.
The biggest hangup most metric people have with imperial units is conversion factors but once you learn those it's not difficult to use them. My favorite example is tea spoons in a gallon. Yeah it's not immediately intuitive but it's not difficult to figure out if you actually needed to know for some reason. Four quarts to the gallon, four cups to the quart, sixteen tablespoons to the cup, three teaspoons to the tablespoon. Just do a bit of simple multiplication and you're done.
smithsp86 t1_j638t09 wrote
Reply to comment by gravi-tea in TIL to decide what measurement system America should use, John Quincy Adams took 3 1/2 years to produce a 268 page Report on Weights and Measures that ultimately concluded changing to the French metric system would be too difficult for the young nation. Congress took no action on the report. by iamveryDerp
There are 640 acres in a square mile
smithsp86 t1_j638n63 wrote
Reply to comment by gravi-tea in TIL to decide what measurement system America should use, John Quincy Adams took 3 1/2 years to produce a 268 page Report on Weights and Measures that ultimately concluded changing to the French metric system would be too difficult for the young nation. Congress took no action on the report. by iamveryDerp
5280, 212 at sea level, 240, and 43560. Not hard if you remember that an acre is just a furlong by a chain.
smithsp86 t1_j1xndom wrote
Reply to comment by skucera in Meet the amateur astronomer who found a lost NASA satellite by jarvedttudd
It’s also a budget strategy thing. Using Spirit and Opportunity as examples. It’s much easier to stay within budget if they only put 90 days on paper. Once you have the hardware in place it becomes essentially automatic to get extra funding to keep operating. There’s just no sense placing the long term plan in the original proposal.
smithsp86 t1_j1xjxt8 wrote
Reply to comment by SPYK3O in Historic first launch of Chinese private methane-fueled rocket ends in failure by returnofjuju
Not at all private. This is nothing like spacex, blue origin, or rocket lab.
smithsp86 t1_j0jfj0m wrote
Reply to comment by proper_ikea_boy in NASA's DART asteroid smash flung 2 million pounds of rock into space by shellystarzz
It's not our fault that the rest of the world didn't develop interchangeable parts until after their adoption of metric. The U.S. will not switch because there's close to 200 years of industrial development riding on our customary units.
smithsp86 t1_iysnzs3 wrote
Reply to comment by Agreeable_Ad3760 in Private firm prepares to send first Methane-fuelled rocket into Space by wmdolls
Technically not reflection. It absorbs and reemits.
smithsp86 t1_iubhw7g wrote
Reply to comment by katie23322 in What are the not we obvious things that make older movies feel older? by aja_ramirez
Today most people would know it as Kelsey Grammer’s accent in Fraiser.
smithsp86 t1_it5vh88 wrote
Reply to comment by zeeblecroid in China looked at putting a monitoring satellite in retrograde geostationary orbit via the moon by OkOrdinary5299
War is a zero sum game. As long as your opponent is more dependent on those orbits than you are it is a net benefit to make them unusable.
smithsp86 t1_ispx6vk wrote
Reply to comment by _Abe_Froman_SKOC in NASA outlines case for making sole-source SLS award to Boeing-Northrop joint venture by jeffsmith202
Because launching a rocket isn’t the point of SLS.
smithsp86 t1_j6lbti6 wrote
Reply to comment by Paradox_Dolphin in 2 big pieces of space junk nearly collide in orbital 'bad neighborhood' by jeffsmith202
Certainly the coolest solution. One note, objects wouldn't lose velocity by melting. They would lose it because of material ablating off because of the heat.