Lag in Metric Conversion
The latest fiasco regarding the Mars Climate Orbiter (“Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error,” Oct. 1) is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the damage we suffer as a result of the U.S. lagging in converting to the metric system. As an elementary school math teacher, I can assure you that the place where many of the children lose interest in math is the point where they have to learn to use the nonmathematical English system of measurement. I would argue that the use of the antiquated English system goes in large part to explain why American children score lower than the children from other developed nations in mathematics.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory could show some leadership and turn a negative into a positive and put the U.S. back on the track President Carter started us upon, which was derailed by President Reagan. Use this tragedy to speed the adoption of the metric system here in the U.S.
PAUL FRETHEIM
Independence, Calif.
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When Jules Verne’s novels were first translated into English in the 19th century, the translators failed to convert Verne’s metric units into English units. This resulted in mathematical discrepancies that allowed English-language critics to excoriate Verne and chortle about French incompetence. Of course, 100 years later, no one remembers those critics, Verne is still in print and the metric system has conquered all of the world except the U.S. and, I believe, Sierra Leone.
KEVIN CAVANAUGH
Costa Mesa
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The $64,000 question:
Will the insanity/stupidity/immorality/horror of the NASA space program end by time the millennium rolls ‘round? The millennium, that is, of the year 3000.
DAVID R. MOSS
Los Angeles
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Well, well, well--it was bound to happen! Mars probe lost because of a mix-up of metric and the English system. A few years ago I traveled with a group of Canadians and Americans to Europe. It was embarrassing, to say the least. Everything in Europe is in metric and many Americans (college grads) made errors. One even thought gasoline was cheap in Italy until I told him that price was for a liter. I once expressed my opinion at a gathering of old geeks and you’d have thought I was a communist. Being an old geekette myself, I withdrew to the kitchen and made myself a drink. That’s what you do when you start a controversy at a party.
MARY C. THOMAS
Garden Grove
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Are you telling me that NASA lost the $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because of an error in simple arithmetic? Because of a failure to reconcile English and metric measurements? So that’s what they mean when they say, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist.”
MARVIN PETAL
Oxnard
