Incompatibility

[Mechanic]

The September 2013 issue of National Geographic , includes a column "Famous Failures"
The last item reports that in 1998 NASA  sent the Mars Climate Orbiter  to study the Martian climate. After a 287 day journey the probe more than likely burned up in the Martin's atmosphere. It would appear that NASSA used the metric system and the engineers' at Lockheed Martin use English units of measurement.

This reminded of a story about Photon Lumitype. I was told that when the Photon was being manufactured in Europe in the 1950's, part of the contract for some components were subcontracted to England. When the completed English components were sent to the European factory they were found to be incompatible as instead of having female plugs they were fitted with male plugs.
Vive la difference