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| Temperature Conversion
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Enter a number, then click on the appropriate button to see
the result.
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Metric temperature units
(Degrees Celsius) are used in most countries around the world.
The USA has been planning to change from the Fahrenheit to the
Celsius temperature system. A potential problem for proponents
of metrication is that many Americans, thirty years after the
1970s metric push, have little interest in metric usage. Daily
life no longer features even dual usage of units such as Celsius
for temperature, so most Americans have little contact with
metric units on a daily basis.
Those who need to use the metric system for work learn it, those
who travel overseas learn enough to get by and many others see
no compelling reason to use it. The use of two different systems
was the contributing factor in the loss of the Mars Climate
Orbiter in 1998. NASA specified metric units in the contract.
NASA and other organizations worked in metric units but one
subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided thruster performance
data to the team in pound force seconds instead of newton seconds.
The spacecraft was intended to orbit Mars at about 150 km altitude
but the incorrect data meant that it descended to about 57 km
and probably burned up in the Martian atmosphere. |
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