From the course: Business Math
Join today to access over 22,500 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.
Converting numbers: Mars, miles, dollars, and Usain Bolt
From the course: Business Math
Converting numbers: Mars, miles, dollars, and Usain Bolt
- On September 23rd, 1999, NASA lost contact with its Mars Climate Orbiter. The maneuver that the Orbiter was performing when contact was lost was the firing of thrusters to slow down the spacecraft into Mars orbital speed. The Mars Climate Orbiter was never heard from again. Subsequent NASA analysis uncovered the following embarrassing cause of the mishap: the software controlling the thrusters was measuring the force in pounds, whereas the software calculating the spacecraft trajectory was interpreting those numbers as if they were in kilograms. This pound-kilogram mismatch caused the Mars Climate Orbiter to descend too close to the planet, and it disintegrated. Now, we are often faced with a requirement to convert a number measured in one scale into a number in a different scale. For example, for two years I lived in Astana, Kazakhstan where temperatures were reported in degrees Celsius. Having grown up in the United States with the Fahrenheit scale, I was constantly doing mental…
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.
Download courses and learn on the go
Watch courses on your mobile device without an internet connection. Download courses using your iOS or Android LinkedIn Learning app.
Contents
-
-
-
How to compare Olympic medals won in Rio3m 22s
-
Growth rates, the Rule of 72, and the danger of extrapolation7m 10s
-
Financial ratios and determining the unpaid inventory of Walmart5m 37s
-
Convert to percentages: Least common denominator, stock prices, and common-size financial statements5m 21s
-
Converting numbers: Mars, miles, dollars, and Usain Bolt6m 39s
-
-
-
-
-
-