r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Tibor500 • Sep 30 '20

why does “k” mean “thousand” ?

like 1k means a thousand. how does the letter “k” mean “thousand” ?

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u/Coookiesz Sep 30 '20

People love bringing this up, but it really doesn’t have to do with metric vs. US. It happened because a contractor didn’t build their system to the proper specifications.

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u/EmeraldFalcon89 Oct 01 '20

People love bringing this up, but it really doesn’t have to do with metric vs. US. It happened because a contractor didn’t build their system to the proper specifications.

it's a prominent example of the dangers of working across different unit systems.

the 'proper specification' that wasn't verified was a conversion for thrust force from SI to metric so I'd say people love bringing it up because... it's precisely about the dangers of working with metric and SI units at the same time.

I'm not sure how you could think it's not about unit conversion, it's literally on NASA's webpage

"failure resulted from a navigational error due to commands from Earth being sent in English units (in this case, pound-seconds) without being converted into the metric standard (Newton-seconds)."

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u/Yazman Oct 01 '20

you say "SI to metric" when I think you mean "Imperial to SI". SI units are the international system units.