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The famous commentary from Neil Armstrong as the
the Eagle is about to land on the lunar surface is in feet (e.g. "down two and a
half" etc).
Opponents to metrication like to use this to say
that the "English" system is quite capable of putting a man on the
moon.
The truth is that the "English" system could only
have been used for part of it, not all of it. Anything to do with electricity or
magnetism would have to be metric at the very least. I suspect that the purely
mechanical parts were expressed in "English" units and the rest in metric. It
may well be true that metric was used in the design calculations and the result
converted for the pupose of instrumentation and control.
I'm sure Lange, Von Braun et al were quite capable
of working non-metric if they had to but, as I understand to be the case, they
didn't approve of it and couldn't see the sense in having to convert all the
time. However the aeronautical industry had a long tradition of working in
pounds and feet and expected to continue that into aerospace.
No doubt in 1999 they came to seriously regret that
they weren't all metric from the start!
Phil Hall
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