GERALD FLEMING,
Madam, - A numerical error crept into the front-page report of February 3rd from the estimable Conor O'Clery on the Columbia shuttle disaster. It concerns the conversion of temperature figures from Fahrenheit to Celsius - something many people find confusing.
The report refers to a rise in temperature of 60° Fahrenheit, and converts this into 15.5° Celsius. Now a temperature in the atmosphere of 60° F does indeed represent 15.5° C. However, the two temperatures scales do not share a common zero point, and a temperature of zero Fahrenheit represents a temperature of minus 17.8° Celsius. Thus, a rise in temperature of 60° F converts into a rise of (15.5 + 17.8)° C, i.e. 33.3° Celsius.
The sad thing is that the use of both imperial and metric measurements causes confusion and simply wastes time (and thus money) in many scientific and technological endeavours - and also in the everyday world of engineering, architecture, etc.
Roll on standardisation! - Yours, etc.,
GERALD FLEMING, Meteorologist, Met Éireann, Glasnevin Hill, Dublin 9.