Comment by bluenose69
2 days ago
As has been noted by others, the emoting is a distraction. I could only watch this for a few seconds.
Another thing: why are they reporting speed in miles per hour, and altitude in feet? Surely anybody interested in space is familiar with SI units.
Just a guess, but aerospace generally works with feet for altitude and knots/mph for airspeed, internationally. I’m doing a PPL in Europe and we, like everybody, use feet and knots/mph. I believe this is because the US have been on the forefront of aerospace regulation (a set of rules called the chicago convention is the basis of all air law) and aircraft manufacturing.
Not for aerospace no
And knots are not mph, they're "nautical miles per hour" which are a different measure (1nm is 1.8km, not 1.6km as the regular mile")
Sorry, not a native speaker, I was under the impression that aerospace means air and space. I guess i meant aviation.
I didn’t imply knots are mph, I used the slash to signify “or”. They are completely different units, but both are used. Sometimes the airspeed indicator even has two scales, one for kt and one for mph.
Can confirm, all aviation worldwide deals in feet and knots. It's also because it's much easier to do calculations on the fly (literally) - in your head. Metric is precise and logical but harder to use in stressful situations.
Can you please give some real-world example of why it's easier to do calculations? Not disputing what you say, just hard for me to imagine why it would be so.
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Certainly not "worldwide". China uses metres. Recreational aircraft in Europe often use metres (almost all sailplanes).
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You can be just as precise with either system.
"Metric is precise and logical but harder to use in stressful situations."
That fully depends on your cultural background. Feet, miles etc. are so foreign to me that I would be unable to calculate with them under stress.
But I am not a pilot nor a navigator, so...
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Glad to hear it wasn't just me being grumpy, I also found it immensely annoying and distracting.
Who cares what units they use? Anyone who is interested in space will have some knowledge of both kinds of units, and can do conversions if they need to.
Definitely should be football fields or school buses to make it comprehensible for the average viewer. Or “2 times the speed of a bullet”
> Another thing: why are they reporting speed in miles per hour, and altitude in feet? Surely anybody interested in space is familiar with SI units.
The audience that matters most to them is Americans, and they're happy to accommodate even those who are less interested in space.
Perhaps it's considered more patriotic to reject scientific units?
I don't understand why they reserve 6 digits for the speed in mph either. Are they expecting it to go beyond 99,999 mph?
Do they also report the speed of light as Walmart parking lots per standard commercial tv break duration?
Edit: as an Amazon product it would probably use Amazon(tm) cardboard box unit as the length metric and standardized warehouse drone toilet break as duration.
You're trying to break free of Earth's gravity well, so you might as well use Freedom Units.
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