Fletch's 2019-2020 Semi Sarcastic BS Thread

God that is depressingly true

 

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Maybe not the best example considering nasa used the metric system to get to the moon.

The data that was displayed by, as well as any data that the astronauts entered into, the apollo guidance computer was all done in imperial units: feet, feet per second, nautical miles, etc. This was due to the fact that Apollo astronauts, who had mostly trained as jet pilots, would have been accustomed to using those units. However, internally, the computer’s software used exclusively metric units for all navigation, guidance calculations, and values (such as altitude, speed, etc). When an astronaut input data it immediately converted the numbers to metric units, performed all the calculations using metric, and only converted the output back into imperial units if/when that data was being shown on the computer’s display.

It actually makes a ton of sense to use metric for performing the calculations in that situation. The math used to navigate to the moon is almost entirely based off newtons laws of motion and the way the metric system is set up, the derived units (IE meters per second is a derived unit from the base units of meters and seconds) used in newtons laws of motion all have a proportionality constant of 1 while in the imperial system they do not which basically means every single calculation using the standard system requires one or more extra mathematical operations that are unnecessary when using the metric system.

For example if you take Newton’s second law of motion: Force is proportional to mass multiplied by acceleration (often erroneously stated as force is EQUAL to mass multiplied by acceleration, but that is actually incorrect). The actual equation you get out of it is F(force) = k(proportionality constant) * m(mass) * a(acceleration). In the metric system the proportionality constant is 1 so you just leave it out and the equation becomes F=ma. So if you wanted to figure out how much force it would take to accelerate 100 kg at a rate of 7m/s^2 you would use F=100*7 which gives you 700 Newtons (the metric unit for force). The reason the proportionality constant is one is because it takes 1 newton to accelerate 1 kg at a rate of 1m/s^2.

The proportionality constant for the standard system is not equal to 1 (ie the amount of force it takes to accelerate 1lb of mass at a rate of 1ft/s^2 IS NOT equal to 1lb of force. So if you wanted to determine how much force you needed to accelerate 100 lbs at a rate of 7ft/s^2 you’ve gotta include the porportionality constant (0.031080958437299) and use the full equation: F= 0.031080958437299 * 100 * 7 (which equals 21.756663238301 lbs of force)
The Apollo guidance computer (or any computer for that matter) has a fixed rate at which it could perform mathematical operations (14250 per second). For the above example with the metric system it requires a single multiplication operation:
100*7=700
Which means that it could perform that calculation 14,250 times per second (if that was the only thing it was calculating, which obviously is not the case in the real world)

Using the standard system it would require two operations to get to the same answer:
0.031080958437299 * 100 = 3.1080958437299
Then
3.1080958437299 * 7 = 21.756663238301
So, with the standard system, it would only be able to do that calculation 7,125 times per second.

That’s obviously not the only calculation it is making but almost all the guidance calculations needed to fly to the moon is based on newtons laws or motion and they almost all have the same issue where extra mathematical operations are required to perform the calculations using imperial measurements compared to the metric system. It basically meant that using the metric system allowed them to nearly double the amount of information that the guidance computer was able to process.

 

Was the hardware that assembled the ship American? Get the metric system but I am a prideful American as well. Plus I hate soccer.

 

Shut up, Professor Possum.

 

This guy runs traplines for a living?

 

Eats racoons too.

 

Apollo program has always fascinated me so I’ve really learned a lot about it over the years and could talk for hours about it. It doesn’t hurt that one of my college majors was physics.

Trap lines are actually just for fun and coyote population control… the furs don’t amount to a living… they just mostly cover the expenses of having a trapping hobby. I’ve got an independent insurance agency and a fledgling electrical contracting business for paying the bills.

 

Don’t hate on raccoon, it’s actually pretty decent. It has all the flavor of possum without all the sticky, waxy grease. Obviously there is a reason that they’re not considered a delicacy and I certainly prefer waterfowl, dove, squirrel, venison, and fish to raccoon, but they do have the advantage
of a year round season so they come in handy if the freezers start getting empty or if you need to scratch that hunting itch that starts to creep in during those last couple months of summer.

Probably cut back on the raccoons after this season though. Acquired 3 heifers last summer to start building a beef herd. First calves are due in April. By 2024 they should be ready for me to start eating their children.

 

I was part of Columbia recovery in East Texas, it was very interesting.

 

Kids quit doing calves and run feeders now, less vet bills. Farm meat is the best.

 

The hardware was all standard. The metric was just software. My guess is that the software would’ve been standard units too if not for the advantages that the metric system offered in terms of the math requiring fewer operations.

The practice of using both metric and standard measurements for different systems on the same spacecraft eventually came back to bite NASA in the ass. Mars climate orbiter was supposed to orbit fly to Mars and go into orbit so it could collect data while it circled the planet but it ended up crashing into the planet instead of orbiting it. NASA contracted with Lockheed Martin to produce a system that calculated the amount of force that a thrusters was producing. They specified for it to output metric units but lockheed wrote the software using standard units (the computational advantages of using metric were critical when using 1960’s technology but quickly became a non-issue due to exponential increases in processing power) The system it interfaces with was expecting the output to be in newton-seconds but instead it was outputting the pounds-force-seconds numbers. Essentially the Lockheed system would sense a force of say 445 newton-seconds, but since it was using the imperial system it would output 100 (the pound-force-seconds equivalent of 445 newton seconds) and the other NASA system would receive that and assume it was 100 newton-seconds. End result is if the spacecraft needed a course adjustment that required the thruster to run for 10 seconds it would end up firing it for 45 seconds because the numbers the guidance computer was receiving was indicated that the thruster was producing less than 25% of its rated thrust when it was firing but in reality it was actually producing the full rated power.

 

they can be tasty .... beaver and muskrats also .... MMMmmmmm

 

You freeze those after you skin them, then run them thru a wood chipper to mix with dog food for sled dogs.

 

I’m hoping I’ll be able to figure out most of the care stuff without having to rely on the vet. So far I am doing well - went 3 for 3 on my first try doing artificial insemination and they were heifers (AI isn’t the long term plan, once I’ve got a bigger herd I’ll get a bull but doesn’t make sense yet since I wouldn’t be able to use it to breed any of the calves down the road (due to the genetic issues related to incest). Worst case scenario is any of the cows don’t make it I’ll just bust out the gambrel and process and eat them myself.


My plan is to actually do specialty high-end beef. I’ve got tons of hippy-dippy type places within 50 or so miles from me (chapel-hill, Asheville, charlotte, raleigh). Plan is to do them as grass-fed (after all - cows are perfectly designed for efficiently turning grass into steak) and sell them to high end places as locally produced grass fed meat. (except for the ones I keep for myself. Grass fed is such a scam; fattened up on the feedlot makes for a far tastier cow. The ones destined for my freezer are getting moved to a different field where I am gonna fatten up the ever loving **** out of them).

The heifers are registered Herefords and the splooge came from a Kobe Waygu. I’ve been working closely with a local specialty butcher that’s usda certified and whose main business is processing high-end specialty meats for local-raised farm-to-table restaurants and high end butcher shops. They actually process meat from all over the east coast (apparantly local raised doesn’t always mean locally slaughtered - it often means locally raised, shipped 200 miles for slaughter, then shipped back) but they happen to be located a few miles away and I’ve known the owner since high-school.

I got too much other stuff going on so I really don’t have time to do a huge operation. My goal is to eventually build up to like 30-40 head. I could easily keep 100+ on the land, more if I wanted to buy hay for winter instead of saving a couple fields to cut and bale myself, but I don’t think I can manage that many. My plan is that by having half as many cows as I could have, I’ll gave significantly less hay, feed, etc expenses but I’ll be able to bring in a lot more per cow by selling them to the rich liberals in the nearby city’s since they love paying extra for fancy local grass fed, ethically raised, cage free, etc.. beef.

Basically it’s just an adult version on the same concept I used when I sold organic firewood in college. That firewood plan worked gangbusters so hopefully the business model will translate to beef. I’ve even got some fancy cow back scratchers which are like big hydraulically powered spinning brushes. (I’m not gonna lie, the cows absolutely love them and I really love watching them use them. They get so happy that they start jumping for joy. It kind of makes my day every time I see it. I’m still gonna eat their children though) I just set up some trail cameras to record videos of the cows using them. I haven’t decided whether I’ll use the videos for marketing yet. On the one hand it would a video of the cows jumping for joy after getting a back rub would show how happy they were and what a great life they had, but on the other it could backfire and make the hippies feel bad for eating them. I got a year to decide though so we’ll see.

 

Rent a bull