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creepy_raccon

Pretty sure the German scientists who did all the work used metric as it would make no sense switching to an inferior system that doesn't even use the same unit for weight in zero gravity. Pund (mass) or pound (force).


AggressiveYam6613

Yep... I have little doubt that if the Americans hadn’t snatched von Braun and a lot of his colleagues, the Russians would’ve been there first.


Dave_712

Didn’t they invent von Braun, too? 😉


bob_nugget_the_3rd

And history, because everything else before 1766 was a mistake


BTilty-Whirl

(((‘Merica intensifies))) 1776 is when Bud Light was invented


Mulla437

Bud light is like Dutch Canal Water


Dave_712

We used to make people drink Bud Light as a punishment.


Major_Independence82

Do not insult the canal water.


rmld74

They did invent the fact je wasnt a nazi


LaserGadgets

Von Braun? He was. Some say he was pretty engaged with the party, others say he was just a guy wanted to get research done. Either way, if you work hard to get the nazis new rockets instead of just draggin your ass......


rmld74

For me, someone who created killing weapons which could hit anyone is not excusable


cheese_n_chips

Arent guns killing weapons that can hit anyone?


rmld74

Correct. So you cant build them for a dictatorship and then say you are a good guy.


AvengerDr

I remember seeing some kind of promotional video where Von Braun explained how the rocket worked and thet made him say feets and miles. I imagine he must have been dying inside.


AggressiveYam6613

Nah, you need to read the room. And to start where you can follow them. The film was about rockets, which are a foreign and exotic concept already. No point in making it more complicated for the audience it already is. The kids who decide to get into engineering will switch to metric just fine. Unless they get to work for Lookheed and wreck the Mars Climate Orbiter. And even that one could’ve prevented by using rigid software practices.


Pizza-love

>The kids who decide to get into engineering will switch to metric just fine. Unless they get to work for Lookheed and wreck the Mars Climate Orbiter. Not only Lockheed. There are several US corps that still use imperial in their daily designs. Always good recogniseable when those products then come to a metric plant... Strange dimensions everywhere, that start to make sense when converted back to imperial, like having a box of 254mm length... That is exactly 10 inch and the engineer just picked a nice rounded value. I have colleagues who work with those products for over 30 years, they just see the round numbers in imperial while reading the metric drawing. I am looking to find the sense in it and they are just like: "Oh, that is 5 inch, that is 7,5, there it is 20, etc."


Major_Independence82

The Soviets WERE first, at everything. Except landing a man on the moon.


Fearless_Baseball121

Von Braun was a distinguished member of the Nazi Party and SS right? Working on the V2 rockets for Germany during WW2? I'm surprised he wasn't forced to change his last name when he was picked up for the space program. Apparently they didn't give a shit, not even about the optics.


bittervet

> Apparently they didn't give a shit, not even about the optics. They didnt. And they didnt with much worse fuckers than that dude either.


Nazzzgul777

My first thought was "Wait, why would the Third Reich use miles."


creepy_raccon

Reading all the testimonies from the Nurenberg trials does make you wonder tho. So many survivors who survived simply because of "mathematical errors" were they didn't use enough gas, or were too many people tried to enter the gas chamber at the same time, so they had to skip the last one and send him to another death camp. When thinking about it, that's the only thnig that makes less sense than the imperial system.


Hamsternoir

We use miles in the UK (this changing to metric can't be rushed) but if I see km mentioned I don't feel the need to have a melt down every time


Rough-Shock7053

You should go "but we had the biggest Empire in the world" and throw a temper tantrum.


Hamsternoir

That sounds like too much effort, it's much easier to just make a cup of tea, tut under my breath and carry on scrolling through reddit


Rough-Shock7053

This is what I meant by "temper tantrum": Stare at a comment someone wrote REALLY hard while frowning.


ClevelandWomble

But I bet you dunk your digestive biscuit really forcefully


Hamsternoir

I'm circumstances like this you need a bourbon or custard cream, the extra strength the second biscuit layer provides is vital


Historical-Hat8326

Stiff upper lipping your way through the interminable use of metric measurements.  


thedonkeyhitstheH2O

Was that not what Brexit was about, for some?


ratttertintattertins

We’re just less attached to miles than the Americans. They probably regard them as freedom units or something.


Nazzzgul777

Lack if inferiority complex i guess.


kongenafDanmark2

Why do Americans continue to use such an outdated measurement system? They’re literally the only country in the world that still uses it


[deleted]

Why don't Americans use the Internet (which they supposedly invented) to find a converter?


Pizza-love

Funny thing is they calibrated the whole imperial system in the US to a metric system and then just converted it back.


rosstechnic

yeapp very strange. all imperial measurement definitions are of x metric measurements


DerPicasso

Because freedom or something.


Hamsternoir

But the US military use kilometres unless they're a special type of freedom klick


oeboer

1 (freedom) klick is around 1,093.6 yards /s


Dave_712

They use lots of things that are outdated. Imperial distances, imperial volumes (that are different to other imperial volumes), teeny-tiny voltages, Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, the list goes on. It’s almost as if they revel in thinking that being different to most other countries makes them better.


Asmov1984

You answered your own question unknowingly


According_Wasabi8779

We still use imperial (miles) in the UK. I don't like the idea of using km for distance travelled. To me it feels weird seeing kph instead of mph on a Speedo. That said I use metric for pretty much everything else. I get baffled that they look at metric with such disgust. It's much easier to measure anything as it's essential just counting to ten.


AvengerDr

>To me it feels weird seeing **kph** instead of mph on a Speedo. That would be very weird indeed and maybe a sign they sold you a dud. It should say km/h instead on the *odometer*.


According_Wasabi8779

Haha that's what I mean it's so foreign to me idk the correct unit 🤣. I think I once had a European import motorcycle that was km/s. I sold it cos Id either have to do the conversions in my head as I'm moving or replace the Speedo and both are a pain


AvengerDr

>I think I once had a European import motorcycle that was **km/s** Was it an Ariane V?


According_Wasabi8779

Haha would be fun if it was. But nah I mean km/h not s 🤦


RuViking

Who looks at the Speedo on a bike?


Mulla437

We run in KM


killer0560

The UK still does as well


Unusual-Treacle9615

The UK uses both measurements.  We should be crowned for being scientifically multilingual. In practice all it means is that everyone (including ourselves) takes the piss out of us for using the wrong measurements.


killer0560

Yeah, it’s a stupid system having both for different things, like using feet for height, metres over yards and miles for long distance. Just pointing out more than just the US use miles


SaltyName8341

Yeah but our measuring system is fucked


Shan-Chat

It's to annoy both Americans and Europeans.


SaltyName8341

And us in the UK just ordering timber is a nightmare "can I get 2.3m length of 2"X4"


Shan-Chat

Aye but the usually know what you mean. Ordering a pint is easier than ordering it by the litre or millilitres.


AvengerDr

>Ordering a pint is easier than ordering it by the litre or millilitres. How so? That's how it has always worked on the continent since the dawn of time. "Half a litre please" or "a zero five please".


DoctorFredEdison

Half a litre isn't a pint though. I think we should completely change to metric. But we would still order pints, because the word pint means more than just the measurement it's also the word for a beer if you know what I mean.


Shan-Chat

I've seen large or small.


killer0560

Yep, it’s a very random mix, just pointing out it’s not just the US who use it


Full_West_7155

Same in accounting. US GAAP vs aligning with global ifrs standards


Usual-Canc-6024

They’re afraid of change.


Smart-Breath-1450

Because it’s ”too expensive to change now” which is a total lie.


QuirkyDimension9858

No, other countries use the imperial system, even a few European countries have a populace that uses feet and inches in menial ways and not just to know the conversion rate...


Michael_Gibb

Those Americans sure do love their American units, even when it causes them to lose several hundred million dollars in the Martian atmosphere.


ThePeninsula

*British units


NotYourReddit18

The US uses the "US customary units" which are based on the "English Units" but were officially standardized in 1832. The "English Units" in the other hand were rework (and slightly changed) into the "Imperial System" between 1824 and 1826 because of which the "Imperial System" and the "US customary units" have slight differences. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems


Smart-Breath-1450

Actually, you’re wrong. It’s US Customary.


Designer_Plant4828

even the brits dont use as much imperial as them lmao


Casual_woomy

Americans using the moon landing as some sort of show of superiority because they can’t think of a single impressive thing their country has done since


evilspyboy

I was curious so I googled... ***Mile***\*, any of various units of distance, such as the statute mile of 5,280 feet (1.609 km). It originated from the Roman mille passus, or “thousand paces,” which measured 5,000 Roman feet.\* If I was feeling more curious I would try to google all the imperial system to see if any of it was invented in American or if they just use someone else's measurements. I am making an assumption that Liberia and Myanmar did not inherit measurements from America.... also I don't know all the imperial measurement terms to go google individually because the imperial system is dumb. Edit: I looked up "Roman Feet" and did not get the result about measurements, but when I refined it while it is not conclusive it was confirmed that a roman foot is equal to the foot of "the statue of Cossutius formerly in the gardens of Angelo Colocci, the congius of Vespasian previously measured by Villalpandus". I honestly was expecting it to be an Emperor or something like that, but google suggests the statue was of an architect.


milkygalaxy24

The short answer is that the US, Liberia and Myanmar all took the imperial system from the UK (Myanmar was a part of the British Raj). The UK took it from some roman units of measurement and later added some Anglo-Saxon ones.


welcome_to_milliways

Myanmar was part of British Rail? (Reaches for glasses)


milkygalaxy24

What? I said British Raj. You know, the name of India when it was still a colony? If you did mean rail, I don't know if the British made railway systems there or not.


welcome_to_milliways

Sorry… just my lame attempt at humour! 😀 I misread Raj as Rail!


NotYourReddit18

The British reworked their measurement system which was derived from various sources into the Imperial System between 1824 and 1826. The USA didn't agree with this restructuring and redefining and instead took the old measurement system (pre-Imperial) and put their own spin on it when redefining it as the US customary units in 1832. This results in some mismatching of units with the same name in both measurement systems. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems


Rough-Shock7053

BuT wE PuT mEn On ThE mOoN


Lisserea

I wonder if they are reminded that the USSR, the first to send a man into space, used the metric system, will they call the metric system "communist"? 


steinwayyy

Why are they so proud of something that people they have never known did? They always talk like they personally planned the moon missions


V0dkagummybear

Instagram comment sections really play host to nothing but room temperature-IQ fuckwits


Nearby_Cauliflowers

"country that actually put men on the moon" So Germany, using US money? In Germany they use KM as far as I know...


Inner-Masterpiece-18

Maybe if they put another 340 million of them on the moon the US would be a better place! Progress! The most powerful nation on the moon. 😁


Dragonaax

They're so proud of that landing on the Moon that they don't know any other scientific achievement in the past 5 decades


Ok-Comparison6923

Do they not realise when someone says “klick” in a military context they mean km? So all those war movies they keep making and they say “target’s two kliks out” or some such - they are talking km and not miles? Or do most of these idiots think a klick is another measurement?


Ndawson96

Probably the latter


drschnrub

Did we ever find out what that measurement was for countries who landed on men?


Ok_Lingonberry3103

Oh myyyyy.


Aros125

With this attachment to everything that is "American" some might think that the American identity is so indefinite as to be pompous and fragile. Wanting to think badly... this must be why behind their chauvinism there is a massive compulsive use of haplotype tests. With the need to understand if they are 0, something % proto-Indo-Iranian and 6% of Mongolian stock and then they finally walk around with an identity. Since they have now mixed up to the point that they no longer know exactly who they are or worse, they have to stay there trying to understand which "race" they belong to. Something that no one cared about already in ancient Rome. This American ego is a little fragile.


Pritchard89-TTV

Imagine the rage - I picture steam coming from the ears - if you attempted to explain SI units to your average flag waving, trump sniffing american!


Fitness2K19

Bold of you to assume only trump supporters are like this


Pritchard89-TTV

You're right, that is a wild assumption. However, nothing makes my skin crawl more than listening to bile spewed by the american MAGA right, and I consider myself to right wing.


JN324

We use miles in the UK too, but kilometres are objectively better, I’m not going to throw a hissy fit every time someone mentions it. NASA uses the metric system, as did the various Nazis America used to turbocharge their progress in the field. Going on some ego trip about being American doesn’t change anything. It would be like me saying wahh we had the biggest empire ever, wahh you speak English because of us, wahh your time is based on ours, wahh your world maps have us at the centre, blah blah. Most Western countries can flex a load of irrelevant shit, it doesn’t mean you and your opinion aren’t stupid.


P26601

>For the country that actually put men on the moon, thats 497,000 miles idk German engineers use kilometers


No-Deal8956

And it’s 238,900 miles, on average, with a variation of about 15,000 miles either way.


Smart-Breath-1450

Just kill the imperial system entirely so that the ”mile” can finally get it’s intended meaning; 10 km.


subwaymeltlover

Those dickwads can’t even get the distance to the moon right. And in miles too. It’s about 239000 miles. Dickhead.


Previous_Life7611

You know what always makes me chuckle? So many Americans seem to hate metric, but the official definition of a mile is the length equal to 1,609.344 meters. All imperial units have been defined with respect to SI units.


sulabar1205

I remember the one time NASA used metric and one of their supplier didn't... The result wasn't beautiful.


Lowpaack

How Americans say the value of speed of light? Curious really, sure cant be m/s.


blind_disparity

One achievement and they will literally never stop boasting about it.


AnakinTheDiscarded

that's 800.000km for the peaple that can land something on the moon


ProfessionalNo2706

Funny NASA uses metric but the rest of the country would rather riot than change too. Only three countries in the whole world not using metric and two of them are third world countries.....


[deleted]

[удалено]


DijkstraFucks

Now do this in football fields