English/metric measurement error in the Mars Climate Orbiter

[Philip Davies]

I first learned of this disaster when reading John Neal’s book on metrology, “All Done With Mirrors”. In this, he shows how the English foot is an integrated system of great antiquity, which system is a more accurate fraction of the polar axis than the meter, which unfortunately was calculated without taking into account the fact that the Earth is an oblate sphere . ( I do not subscribe to the notion that the Earth is flat and has 4 corners, although I know people who believe this!) Oh, I am also a graduate of the University of Wales, where I learned to respect opinions for what they are.