SanDroid (3/22/2011)
Great question. You would not believe how long and how often programers get this wrong.There is even a list that is maintained of ROM chips that do weight conversions incorrectly becuase Dec(6,2) is used instead of Dec(13,5)
I even had to "show the math" on this exact thing a year ago when I had to explain why the weight conversion code used to change Pound to Kilos and vice versa was wrong in every appliation where I work.
Not understanding this math is why so many ships have a problem balancing thier loads.
Sometimes the cargo is weighed in pounds and the balast program uses Kilos.
Then someone uses a cheap hand calculator to convert the 100,000 tons in pounds to Kilos and the weghts off by at least 1,000 tons.
Are you sure that extra weight isn't from the stowaways (Illegal aliens) that are aboard and unaccounted for?
Besides, isn't counting ballast by kilo's easier? One kilo of weight and one liter of water displacement equals neutral buoyancy. Doing that in another factor is 2.2 pounds for each 0.26417205263729593 (approx) US gallons of displacement.