Converters
Jul 15, 2026
Why a Unit Conversion Error Destroyed a $327 Million Mars Mission — And Why the US Still Uses Imperial
The US still uses imperial because a voluntary metric conversion law in 1975 lacked enforcement and the Metric Board was abolished in 1982. Here's how the Mars Climate Orbiter was destroyed by a metric-imperial unit confusion costing $327 million, why nautical miles are defined by Earth's geometry (1 arcminute of latitude), and why the modern definition of the metre via the speed of light is reproducible anywhere in the universe without a physical artefact.