this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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252
Scientists are hoping to redefine the second – here's why (theconversation.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With a full switch to metric, hopefully. We’ve lost a Mars probe to unit confusion already.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not everything needs to be base 10.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No but everyone's life will be easier. Fortunately, most space agency empoloyees are scientists who embrace the metric system because it is less error-prone and does away with arbitrary conversion like in^3^ / floz. Space civilians will hopefully follow suit.

Metric also has a different unit name for force (N) and mass (kg) as opposed to the ambiguous pound – which works well enough on Earth but not on bodies with different gravity.