@freemo , the USA has a weird hybrid system, where officially everything has to be done metric, but then translated to imperial for public consumption.
>"the USA has a weird hybrid system, where officially everything has to be done metric, but then translated to imperial for public consumption."
What "offical" requires that? DOT does stuff in miles, NOAA does stuff in Fahrenheit...
@Pat NASA. Auto makers use metric. Pharmacies use metric. Science is all metric.
@Pat there are literally government regulations on this. Often so we don't crash another hundred million dollar probe onto Mars. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-oct-01-mn-17288-story.html
@Pat , slightly different story with Hubble, that was a part of the surface grinder that was put in upside down... but ya. Mistakes like that are compounded by having to convert units.
@JonKramer
...or make a big space telescope that's out of focus. 😂