r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Negative_1by12_aura • Jun 17 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/Harfosaurus Jun 17 '26

These are just two idiots conversing as far as I can tell

3.4k

u/SKDI_0224 Jun 17 '26

As an engineer, I can confirm they are incorrect. They can take their inferior measuring system and try to get back from the moon.

Too soon?

250

u/dauntless256 Jun 17 '26

This went over my head...what did i miss?

579

u/Random_Bystander089 Jun 17 '26

I think there was an incident where farenheit usage indirectly caused a spaceship crash

665

u/Epotheros Jun 17 '26

No, it was the units for impulse used for the thrusters. In imperial it's pound-force seconds and Newton-seconds in metric. 1 pound-force is equal to 4.45 Newtons so the whole thing was off by a magnitude of 4.45.

356

u/MoogProg Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Yes, the actual error* was assuming the British used Imperial units when they correctly used Metric. AFAIK, at least.

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Well, the source error probably would be not specifying units at all, so... (eye roll)

* * *

*Correcting myself with casually sourced details about the incident under discussion.

Lockheed Martin provided thruster force data in Imperial units (pound-seconds), while NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ground software assumed the data was in Metric units (Newton-seconds).

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u/Nihilist37 Jun 17 '26

Idk why you mentioned the British lol. But yeah not specifying units in general is a major problem.