Another English/Metric "Spacecraft" Problem

SuperDry writes "There's been another spacecraft failure that's been attributed to an English/Metric units problem, this time at Tokyo Disneyland's Space Mountain. An axle broke on a "spacecraft" (a.k.a. roller coaster train) mid-ride, causing it to derail (nobody was hurt). The final investigation report has been released, and the root cause has been determined to be a part being the wrong size due to a conversion of the master plans in 1995 from English units to Metric units. In 2002, new axles were mistakenly ordered using the pre-1995 English specifications instead of the current Metric specifications. Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference."

Proble?

[waitigetit]

It's more like an English spelling problem, no?

A what?

[98jonesd]

whats a proble? ;-)

Disney

[abh]

How come everything Disney does ends up so Mickey Mouse?

Who's at fault here, really?

[ObviousGuy]

The Japanese who, like the rest of the modern world, switched to metric years ago?

Or the American designers who couldn't even do simple multiplication in order to convert from English to Metric?

Gotta ask...

[thatguywhoiam]

Another English/Metric "Spacecraft" Proble

I'm Canadian, so I have to assume that 'proble' is the... imperial spelling... of problem?

"I get five rods to the hog's head!"

See!!

[Anonymous Coward]

We need a one world government with one way of doing things! How many more people have to die because we have to hang on to old ways of doing things? Stop this madness now! Surrender your nationalist ideals. Borders exist in the minds of dimwitted politicians. Borders can't be see from space. We must unite and work together to advance mankind.

Support the New World Order now!

Standard system

[thom2000]

Hmm, maybe it would be a good idea to always use a standard international system of units, to avoid these kind of problems...

How many Rods to the Hogshead?...

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't mentioned in the article, but for my own reference, I'm wondering how many Rods to the Hogshead this ride gets?
Or if that info. isn't available, how many stone per fortnight this ride has in lifting capacity.

TDz.

Proving once again...

[Kenja]

Proving once again that the average person has a hard time coutning to ten.

The horror

[netfool]

>Apparently size does matter, even if it's only a 0.86mm difference. At this very moment there are hundreds of geeks around the world trying to think of a great punchline for this.

Re:How many Rods to the Hogshead?...

[flewp]

how many stone per fortnight this ride has in lifting capacity.

That depends if the ride is European or African.

Mod points

[Popageorgio]

And suddenly the mods realized that "Problem" was fixed and they'd blown all their mod points on two-minute jokes.

Re:Standard system

[TheScogg]

Yes. We could call it "metric"!

Just use google calc

[beej]

10 meters = 98.4251969 hands

HAHAHAH! No one uses hands anymore to measure distance! How ARCANE!

We use feet.

Re:English units?

[sugar and acid]

Its not just Imperial, its the British Imperial System of measurement. Which makes for some irony, as the last major country to use the system officially is the USA, the first country to break away from the British Imperial System of Government.

Re:English/Metric

[whizzard]

I think it's about time the US caught up with the rest of the world and ditched these stupid and difficult-to-remember units once and for all.

Also, since C is more difficult to remember (and use) than Visual Basic, I propose that C be outlawed once and for all.

Re:See!!

[Anonymous Coward]

And just which leader would you want to see running the planet?

Kodos or Kang?

Re:0.86mm? That's a HUGE difference!

[zulux]

Lemmeee tell 'ya....

Here at Hyundai - .86mm is barely noticible. It just means you have to push harder to get the part to fit.

Our cars can take it!

Re:The source of the problem

[FireFury03]

Errm... so 10000 metres is the distance between the equator and the North pole? (i.e. 10km). You live on a very small planet with a circumference of 40km then.

Re:The US needs to catch up

[drinkypoo]

The entire world uses Metric people.

So do we! When we say how many children the average family contains, it's always like 2.4, not "two and two fifths".

Re:Imperial, not English...

[deitel99]

For example, the inch is now _defined_ as 2.54 cm, it has nothing to do with some king's thumb or anything.

Personally I think 2.54cm is pretty arbitrary. Then again, cm are based on a fraction of a wavelength of a certain coloured light, which is, yet again, arbitrary.

The first attempts for standardising the inch were many hundreds of years ago, since it's so vital to have correct measurements for trade. Despite what most posts here seem to think, the Imperial Inch does not change every time the English monarch does.

Re:English units?

[Hogwash McFly]

The system is fascinated with 1/16ths and 1/32s which gets really hard to work with

Your Geek Pass has been revoked. You have one hour to clear your desk and leave the building. Thank you for your co-operation.

Why Imperial (NOT english) Sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Upon careful examination it is clear that the Imperial system is at least indirectly responsible for most of the world's problems, including but not limited to:

* Government conspiracy
* Microsoft Windows
* Rap Music
* Hondas and their drivers
* Transistors
* Pokemon
* Jerry Springer
* Televangelism
* Toxic waste
* The Republicans
* The Democrats
* Defective and bogus hardware
* Wrenches that dont fit
* Starbucks coffee
* Communism
* Soccer
* The Dollar.

Re:Embarrassing

[jdog1016]

> A fucking meter is almost exactly the length of one fucking yard.

Yeah, thats apparently what the disney people thought too...

Re:English/Metric

[Joseph Vigneau]

I bet you don't even know how many cubic inches there are in a cup.

Google knows all:

14.4375001 [google.com]

Re:Noticable difference ?

[keith6689]

I don't think the average slashdot reader is going to get near enough to a girl to find out!

for those of you that can't see the light....

[dcordeiro]

1m = 1000 mm
1km = 1000 m
1kg = 1000 g
1 Ton = 1000 kg
1 liter (water) = 1kg
1 hectare = 10000 m2
1 km2 = 100 hectares

Do you see the similarity with our numeric system ?

You only see 1's and 0's.

Re:Imperial, not English...

[Dave2 Wickham]

Well, y'see, Imperial roads are made out of mint. This does not provide an ideal driving condition; hence the need for metric roads.

(yeah, I meant imperial/metric measurements)

Re:The source of the problem

[kinnell]

Last time this was mentioned, I pointed out that it was related to the distance between the pole and Paris, and someone "corrected" me saying it was the Paris meridian. I think I can therefore be confident of the following:

1. The metre has nothing to do with the equator, and something to do with Paris.
2. Slashdot is not the place to look for enlightened discussion

Re:for those of you that can't see the light....

[boogy nightmare]

for gods sake its Litre and Metre......

Re:The source of the problem

[saforrest]

Is that the metric system is flawed. It is defined in terms of the size of 18th century railroad tie sizes, which is totally arbitrary.

Mmm-hmm. So, clearly, defining length in terms of the feet of a 1200-year old dead Frankish king is a better choice?

Re:About time America left the stone age

[Rick Richardson]

The metric system is going to seem pretty silly when evolution does away with the pinky and pinky toe.

-Rick

Beat the rush, switch to base 8 now!

Re:Who's at fault here, really?

[jonathan_ingram]

I understood that 100 degrees F is indeed body temperature... but not *human* body temperature. Apparently he calibrated his themometers with the aid of his dog's rectum.

Re:Who's at fault here, really?

[Orion442]

The dumbass that did the conversion. When the engineer uses "eleventyteen" as a real number, time to burn him.

Re:Who's at fault here, really?

[sacherjj]

Pardon me. Perhaps I mis-spoke. How about 25.4000000000000000000 mm per inch?

obligatory simpsons quote

[gnat_x]

"The Metric system is the tool of the devil. My car gets 40 rods to the hogs head and that's the way I likes it!" --Grandpa

Thats nothing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in Puerto Rico body temperature is measured in Celcius and environment temperature in Farenheit. Roads are measured in Kilometers while speed is measured in Miles per hour.

Its a good measurement of how stupid the people who made the compromises were or how smart we have to be only to manage with the daily commute. ;-)

It's what I've been saying all along [humor]

[blate]

:::begin humorous remarks:::

These damned foreign countries. Don't you understand that the US run's the world. If the metric system were so great, wouldn't we be using it by now? Of course.

But we're not. Resistance is futile. You know why we don't use metric? Because it was invented by the French. Now, I love France -- cheese, Bordeaux wines, wonderful cusisine, art -- don't get me wrong. But the Froggies should stick to what they're good at and not try to mess with basic units of measurement. If your units were so great, why were you invaded by Germany twice in the last century? And who bailed you out? The Americans. And what units do we use? Not metric, mes amis, but good old SAE.

Convert to SAE. The lives of space probes, amusement park patrons, astronauts, and la France depend on it! :::end humor:::