From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9e927c332cabaf8f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Wes Groleau Subject: Re: Loss of Mars Climate Orbiter due to units of measurment conflicts Date: 1999/10/25 Message-ID: <38147CE3.58E830CE@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 540362397 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <7t9tvd$9h3$1@netserv.univ-lille1.fr> <1999Oct4.072511.1@eisner> <2A02C30D72C8E6B4.DFCF46BA85758C97.B51FFEB632AE496F@lp.airnews.net> <38062935.F35CF3F1@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> <380F272A.988B7524@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> <45E616E47678A955.512ED5E48B14AC8E.6A1F8C699390892F@lp.airnews.net> X-Accept-Language: en,es,fr,pt Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: news@icg.raytheon.com X-Trace: bos-service2.ext.raytheon.com 940866797 151.168.144.162 (Mon, 25 Oct 1999 10:53:17 CDT) Organization: Raytheon Company MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 10:53:17 CDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: > > > |While I am personally in favor of the SI, I must insist that the > > > |"fundamental constants" are rendered in whatever units the renderer > > > |chooses. I was taught in high school that G = 32.2 ft / sec**2 > > > > Yes, but I was rebutting a post that claimed the reason for using SI is > > because "that's what the fundamental constants are rendered in." > > Actually, you can't "choose" what units the fundamental constants > are in. They are decided on by an international body and the method > of measurement, the units used, the accuracy, etc are all part of > the published value. You wouldn't expect to have "Wes' Own Ada" > would you? What made Ada was decided upon by a large body after > much consultation. Of course you can convert from SI to Imperial > but I'll stand by my original statement. Fundamental constants > are published in SI units, not some other units of convenience. So, in the above scenario, the international body is the renderer that _chose_ to publish them in SI. Other renderers may have chosen (as did the author of my high school physics text) to render them in other units. I encourage SI--but the fact that someone used it somewhere to publish an "official" approximation for the speed of light or Avogadro's constant* is not a good argument for using SI * Ever notice that Ada 95 Quality and Style contains two different values for Avogadro's constant? (See 3.1.2 and 3.2.6) Notice that neither mentions units, nor matches the 1998 CODATA value?