Results: This is a survey about The Gimli Glider and how standards measurements are not standard at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
Published on 05/03/2023
Air Canada Flight 143, commonly known as the Gimli Glider was a Boeing 767 plane that ran out of fuel midway into its flight on July 23, 1983 because of the non standard way of measuring how much fuel to carry. It glided to a landing on an old air force landing strip, miraculously with no loss of life. The problem was, In the US, jet aircraft fuel was measured in pounds. The navigational computer on early Boeing 767s required fuel to be entered in kilograms. When the fuel gauges failed this required the fuel to be measured using a dipstick. An incorrect conversion from volume to mass led to both pilots and ground crew thinking it was carrying enough fuel for the remaining trip. In fact, the aircraft was carrying only 45% of its required fuel load. The safety board recommended the immediate conversion from Imperial units to metric units. A mixed fleet was more dangerous than an all-Imperial or an all-metric fleet of volume even while in the US it remains measured by weight.. Why not come up with a worldwide standard? Well it isn't so easy. For example.....
QUESTIONS
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Comments
1.
1.
Europe makes some very fuel efficient cars and some of them get exported to Canada and the US. If you were in the market for such a car, which of the following 4 models would you pick (all other factors being equal).
30 miles per gallon in Canada
34%
749 votes
25 miles per gallon in the US
50%
1099 votes
9.5 liters per 100 kilometers in Canada
19%
426 votes
9.5 litres per 100 kilometres in France
9%
207 votes
2.
2.
Fuel is not the only problem area when it comes to measurement standards. Even temperatures have differences in measurement. For example what is the lowest temperature water can remain in liquid form at sea level?
Zero degrees Celsius
35%
778 votes
Minus 38 degrees Centigrade
15%
337 votes
Minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit
17%
381 votes
32 degrees Fahrenheit
48%
1064 votes
3.
3.
Whether you spill it in Canada or US, there is no point crying over it unless perhaps you spill a lot of it. Milk can be measured in various ways. If you spilled each of the following, which would make you the least liable to cry? In other words which spill is the least?
4 litres of Canadian milk
26%
570 votes
1 US gallon of milk
43%
941 votes
16 cups of Canadian milk
18%
397 votes
18 cups of US milk
19%
426 votes
- 4 Litres of Canadian milk
- i us gallon
- 4 liters CDA
4.
4.
I hope you didn't peek at the answers below or spend too much time on the Internet trying to figure out the answers (it took me long enough). Here are what I think are the correct answers. I hope you had some fun trying to work them out. Whether you did or didn't, does this suggest we should standardize some of these standards?
Answer to Question 1: They are all approximately the same
30%
670 votes
Answer to Question 2: Minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 38 degrees Celsius are both the same degree of cold below which water can no longer remain in liquid form.. It is considered the (absolute scientific) freezing point of water. Zero degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit are the melting point of water (and commonly but wrongly called the freezing point of water).
24%
523 votes
Answer to Question 3: The US gallon has the least volume of the four examples. The other 3 are approximately the same volume.
24%
538 votes
Answer to "Which spill is the most?" 18 cups of milk in the US. When it comes to cup size, Canadians and Americans are equal.
25%
559 votes
For those of you who are interested in a documentary about The Gimli Glider," I have linked the video.
30%
665 votes
- yes
- Metric
- metric
COMMENTS