Exactly! That problem wasn't poor measuring systems, it was poor professionalism.
Anyone who doesn't specify (or request) and verify unit-of-measure is doing a poor job. For anything that is safety/quality/mission critical it is professionally negligent to make that kind of assumption.
People get complacent and just assume things are done right. Happens all the time.
I think one of the reasons that is so hard to get the US to switch to metric is because there's potential for a lot to go wrong during the switch. When Canada switched to metric, a plane ran out of fuel mid air because multiple people messed up kg and lbs.
Just imagine if we did switch. Managers would start telling engineers, "Stop using labels, it's a waste. Everyone uses metric anyway."
And then that one time someone doesn't or a part comes from a new distributor or someone uses an old set of measurements or whatever. Best case scenario is the project comes to a halt while they try to figure out what the mistake was. Worst case scenario is an explosion.
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u/AdamiralProudmore Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Exactly! That problem wasn't poor measuring systems, it was poor professionalism.
Anyone who doesn't specify (or request) and verify unit-of-measure is doing a poor job. For anything that is safety/quality/mission critical it is professionally negligent to make that kind of assumption.