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blue
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 Posted: 03/04/04 - 19:33 Post subject: t-minus... stat????
this thread is where you post technical terms that people use but you don't understand...
what does t-minus *actually* mean?
and stat? i know it's hurry up, but why *STAT*...
answers are helpful.
post post post.
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Cappy
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 19:35 Post subject: Re: t-minus... stat????
| blue wrote: | and stat? i know it's hurry up, but why *STAT*...
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STAT: A common medical abbreviation which is used to imply urgent or rush. It is derived from a Latin word "statim" which means immediately.
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brie k
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 20:12 Post subject:
I think you know what t-minus, what you are wondering is why they use that particular phrase, when they could just say "10 seconds til liftoff" or what the heck ever. I think it's just one of those quirky things. Maybe it's all about cadence, maybe in the earliest days they figured out that phrase took exactly one second to say, so that was the checkpoint, you know, from where they began the counting? Maybe those rocket scientists were too snobby to say "one Mississippi"?
Maybe the T stands for take-off? Or time? Or ???
I don't know. I'll run it by SIL. She's a career NASA person. Maybe she'll know.
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blue
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 20:30 Post subject:
| brie k wrote: | I think you know what t-minus, what you are wondering is why they use that particular phrase, when they could just say "10 seconds til liftoff" or what the heck ever. I think it's just one of those quirky things. Maybe it's all about cadence, maybe in the earliest days they figured out that phrase took exactly one second to say, so that was the checkpoint, you know, from where they began the counting? Maybe those rocket scientists were too snobby to say "one Mississippi"?
Maybe the T stands for take-off? Or time? Or ???
I don't know. I'll run it by SIL. She's a career NASA person. Maybe she'll know. |
i know it's a count down, but T-minus? i dunno, the math of the "minus" is beyond me. maybe T+ 10 minutes lol...
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copteacher
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 20:45 Post subject:
t=0 hour
t- refers to time until
t+ refers to time after
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blue
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 21:07 Post subject:
| rtpd113 wrote: | t=0 hour
t- refers to time until
t+ refers to time after |
yay.
now if only that would get me a mark on my math exam tomorrow.
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brie k
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Posted: 03/04/04 - 21:11 Post subject:
| blue wrote: |
i know it's a count down, but T-minus? i dunno, the math of the "minus" is beyond me. maybe T+ 10 minutes lol... |
Ok, it's like this. time to launch minus 10 minutes is where they are "now". So if launch is 4pm, and it's t-minus 10, then it's 350pm. Get it? I didn't understand that you didn't understand the math part. T+10 would be 10 minutes after launch. Minus being before, + being after.
Wanna hear something confusing? I was checking out NASA's website, reading some old Apollo 8 transcripts I think it was, and one of the guy's said, "It was T-minus 20, so it was 40 minutes before launch." WTF? Hoping that's a typo, else it really messes up my understanding, completely.
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