English/metric measurement error in the Mars Climate Orbiter

[Philip Davies]

Perhaps it would have been better had I written “which VALUE is part of a system of immense antiquity” (compared to the VALUE of the metre, which as you say, is very slightly in error - partly owing to the oblate sphere of the earth) I had already read your post and I have also read his book and discussed this topic with Neal. My intention, if you read carefully what I have written, is merely to introduce to this forum a well-researched publication on metrology, not to debate whether one system is better than another. Mechain and Delambre (surveyors, 1793) were attempting to find an accurate value of the meridian, a fraction of which would be the basis for the Metric system. The advantage of the polar axis, if it could be accurately determined, is that it is fixed, whereas the meridian varies: that is the point made by the author.

[jasonmrye]

I feel your pain! If I have one more square peg/round hole/no-go conversation with an engineer, I'm just gonna lose it. Had to take the guy out to the machine I was running and show him before he would believe me. I even used big words (correctly), so he would feel more comfortable.

[Philip Davies]

Thanks, Jason. Big words are my stock-in-trade!

[NortonDommi]

Here's something of interest, Metrickery near the bottom for those that aren't interested in history or how we arrived where we are.
I look forward to your dissection mklotz.

Weights, Measures and Volumes of the Ancient Mediterranean

[Frank S]

Now that was a long read
Thanks for the eye strain headache LOL

[Philip Davies]

Thank you for this reference, which is very intriguing. It will take a long time to absorb this new information, but I am most grateful.

[Philip Davies]

Now then, Norton, I have begun to study this very interesting article, but oh dear, I have read of a number of astonishing “facts”, which, while plausible, must be regarded as hypotheses, and not likely to be accepted by any academic in the relevant fields. Just thought I’d get that in before someone else does!

[Frank S]

while I was doing some research for a book I was contemplating on writing I read several references ab out 11th & 12 century England's building practices. It turned out that the accepted master builders of the time for very large projects were the master so=tone masons. Whose unit of measure was mostly the pole, or divisions thereof. Most references I found to determine the length of a pole were in average of 3 x of the builder's stature in h Being that most people were quite a bit shorter back then, the average height of man was somewhere around 5 ft 4 to 5 ft 6 which would have commonly placed many of the Master stone Masons in the 5 ft 6 inch height range making the length of their poles being 16.5 ft making them fall in line with he length stated in the article (Weights, Measures and Volumes of the Ancient Mediterranean). One of my research sources was a book series the Pillars of the Earth. In one chapter there was a question an apprentice asked the Master how long was a pole? the Master replied a pole is a pole mine is 3 times my height. Well later on the apprentice became the master builder. Now it has been many years since I read the series but I seam to recollect there were some conflicting measurements between the young apprentice's ( now a master) and the old master since one was much taller than the other.
There are many interesting accounts of units of measure through out history

[Philip Davies]

Thanks, Frank, although the book you are referring to is fiction, a novel by Ken Follett. What was your book to be about?

[Frank S]

Philip, fiction books are usually grounded with factual events the better ones have many deep rooted although often greatly embellished historical facts buried within the story.
My book was based more on a science fictional genre, centered around a forgotten human settlement which was located on a planet which could have been the Earth but wasn't. The principal character started out as a new born Kentauros also known by some as a Centaur or Centaurtide. to a peasant baker woman who was brutally and forcibly molested by a Knight and his war stallion. The Child grew up to be the supreme Queen of the western Continent. Eventually teaching the people long lost art of forging ores into exotic metal alloys, after she discovered some ancient texts dating back hundreds of thousands of years brought to her planet when it was first colonized.Bringing her people out of the very primitive beginnings of a Bronze age Her cunning inherited knowledge of father's warrior, advanced education and leadership skills coupled with the strength stamina and speed inherited from her sire enabled her to excel in every endeavor she undertook.