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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 103376,9e927c332cabaf8f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: gisle@lunde.ii.uib.no (Gisle S�lensminde) Subject: Re: Loss of Mars Climate Orbiter due to units of measurment conf Date: 1999/10/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 540366007 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit References: <38147DBD.8214F32C@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> Organization: University of Bergen, Norway Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-10-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <38147DBD.8214F32C@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com>, Wes Groleau wrote: > >> > 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. >> .. >> >> I wouldn�t quite say that. Fundamental constants like the gravitational >> constant or the speed of light cannot be decided on and no one may >> decide, how they are to be measured. > >Oh, yeah? The Indiana legislature once "decided" that Pi equals 3.0... >(Or is that "urban legend"?) Even worse. In according to an old Norwegian translation of Guinness book of records, they decided it to be exactly equal 4.0 The record was "the most unprecise estimate of pi". I don't have the book at hand now, so I can't give further details. -- Gisle S�lensminde ( gisle@ii.uib.no )