From messing up space missions to losing millions of dollars in seconds, here are the 10 roughest
miscalculations in history…..
10.
The Hubble Telescope
The Hubble Space telescope has changed the way that we see the Universe since its launch
in 1990.
It was one of the greatest technological achievements at the time, but things almost didn’t work
out so well….and all because of a tiny miscalculation.
When the first images were sent back, they were pretty blurry!!
Scientists scrambled to understand why!
They desperately searched to find what had gone wrong with the 1.5 billion dollar telescope,
because that would be one expensive mistake!!
To much dismay, they soon found the answer, and it was that the 94.5 inch primary mirror
had been ground to the wrong shape.
While it was only 2 microns too shallow- the equivalent to a fraction of the width of a
human hair- this error meant that, instead of bringing up to 70% of a star’s light
to the same focal point, Hubble was only able to get between 10 and 15%.
But what could cause such a massive error?
It turns out that it was something as small as a washer that had been inserted into a
device called a ‘null corrector’, that had been used to check the shape of the mirror
when it was being fabricated.
Luckily, scientists found that another instrument on the telescope was able to counteract this
effect and, by tweaking it slightly, could restore most intended functionality to the
telescope.
Nonetheless, Hubble was, for a brief time, the laughing stock of the space science community,
and was very nearly a complete failure.
9.
The Havilland Comet
Why are plane windows rounded you ask??
I’ll tell you!
Following the second world war, the development of aircraft went into overdrive, with companies
realizing the potential that faster commercial travel would offer.
During the 1950’s a number of pilots lost their lives in the development of fast jet
flight, but in 1952 the world’s first jet airliner was brought into service- the ‘de
Havilland Comet’.
There was a problem with their design, and 3 Comets broke up during flight- killing everyone
onboard.
This was a major disaster and the Comets were grounded.
The first air investigators were called in to understand what had happened.
This was at the very beginning of the age of air travel, so the understanding of fuselage
design and the pressures exerted in the air were nowhere near what they are today- but
it was one feature of the Comets design that was deemed to be the most fatal- its square
windows.
The weaknesses in their corners were found to be the points from where the plane’s
structure had fallen apart, which is why today, we now only see oval windows on modern passenger
airlines.
These still prove to be the weak point on planes, though, and recent designs for the
jets of the future have omitted windows altogether.
This makes them safer and more fuel efficient.
Instead, companies plan on offering video screens to replicate the sensation of looking
outside for their passengers.
And now for number 8, but first if you are a returning subscriber welcome back!!!
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8.
The Millennium Bridge
The year 2000 was a time when countries around the world felt like they should build something
special to celebrate the occasion, but London’s Millennium bridge didn’t quite live up to
expectations.
The idea was simple.
A new pedestrian bridge would be built across the river Thames, connecting two important
parts of the city.
The 320-meter-long lateral suspension bridge was hailed as a statement of engineering ability
by those who created it, and excitement was high when it finally opened in June of 2000.
Someone had made a wild miscalculation, though, and as thousands of people walked across,
it began to wildly sway from side to side.
Despite the engineers taking into account the questions of weight and pressure being
exerted from normal forces, they had failed to think about the effect of people’s weight
moving as they took steps across the bridge.
Whoops!
Hundreds of people can weigh a lot!!
Interesting fact: armies from around the world have always taken this into consideration,
and it’s standard practice for them to break step every time they reach a bridge.
The Millennium bridge was, unsurprisingly, closed very soon after its opening and, after
a major redesign and at a cost of many millions of dollars, was reopened two years later in
2002.
7.
The Hindenburg
It was once thought that airships would be the best way to travel, but the infamous case
of the Hindenburg kind of was a buzzkill on that idea, following a tragedy that happened
due to a design error.
The Hindenburg was the fastest way to cross the Atlantic back in the day, taking people
between Europe and North or South America in half the time it would take by Ocean Liner.
Plus all in complete comfort.
On May 6th, 1937, the ship became engulfed in flames, killing 36 people.
It was filled with 7 million cubic feet of Hydrogen gas and caught fire.
This was triggered by a basic law of physics that hadn’t been taken into account during
its design.
There was a difference in the electrical potential between the ship and the surrounding air due
to the conditions that day.
Something that occurred because the metal framework of the ship had been grounded by
the landing line.
This differential is what caused the spark, and the rest was history.
If the ship had been inflated by a non-flammable gas, or if measures had been taken to prevent
electrical build up, then the skies of today would probably look a lot different!
6.
French Railway Cars
France’s railway network is one of the best in Europe, and it’s perfect for getting
around the country.
That’s why in 2014, the results of a 15 billion Euro investment into the Regional
Express Trains was welcome news.
When the new trains began being delivered, though, it soon became clear that a major
mistake had been made- the trains were too wide for the platforms of more than 1,300
of the stations.
This left the rail bosses with the unenviable choice of how to fix the situation.
Do you make new trains??
Or do you fix the stations??
They decided to spend more than 50 million Euros, (about 60 million dollars at the time),
to shave the stations to prevent the new trains from getting stuck.
There was uproar about this waste of money, with France’s transport minister calling
it ‘comically tragic’.
The head of the train company laughed it off, though, saying that it amounted to less than
1% of the yearly cost of running the railways, and that it was merely a ‘drop in the ocean’.
So there!!
5.
Big Ben
Does this look familiar?
Big Ben is the bell that chimes near the Houses of Parliament in London, but it took its designers
more than one attempt to get it right.
The first bell cracked during testing in 1857, so it had to be melted down to be recast.
The new bell was then lifted into position in 1859, but over the next three days, it
also cracked.
There were big arguments over who was to blame, and there was even a libel case.
Theories of the problem ranged from the bell being cast from material that was too brittle,
or that the hammer was too heavy.
SO basically they were accused of not knowing what they were doing.
Rather than replacing the bell again, it was, instead, rotated by one eighth of a turn,
and the hammer was replaced by a lighter one.
4.
Mizuho Securities
The financial world is full of stories of those who made it big, and lost it all.
But one of the most costly mistakes of all time took place in 2005, when Mizuho Securities
Co lost 27 billion yen, or 225 million dollars, on one trade.
The incident caused ripples through the Tokyo stock exchange, and drew criticisms from the
government.
It may not be a surprise that it’s possible to lose so much, but it’s the way that it
happened that was a cause for concern.
It started when a trader at Mizuho Securities tried to sell 610,000 shares of a soon-to-be-launched
job recruiting firm for 1 yen each.
That’s less than 1 penny.
The problem is that the trader had intended to sell 1 share for 610,000 yen, the equivalent
to about 5,000 dollars.
He typed the numbers in backwards!!!
Even worse was the fact that the company didn’t even own that many shares, but the exchange
still processed the transaction- meaning that, despite trying to cancel the trade and being
denied by the exchange, by the end of the day their liability had reached the gigantic
figure.
.
3.
The Laufenburg Bridge
The Laufenburg bridge was a much hailed project to connect the towns of Laufenburg in Germany
with Laufenburg in Switzerland- two twin towns on the opposing banks of the Rhine river that
relied on each other.
The 12 million dollar bridge began construction in 2003, with works starting on each side
and eventually meeting in the middle.
The problem was that as the bridge started to extend out, it became clear that each side
was a different height!!
It wasn’t just a small difference either, the discrepancy was measured to be 54 centimetres,
or about 1 and a half feet!
Luckily, the German engineers were able to fix the problem before things went too far,
but they were certain that the mistake had been made on the Swiss side.
It actually turned out that the mistake was made by both of them.
When drawing up the plans for the design, the bridge dimensions were calculated by using
sea level as a guide.
The problem is that sea level is calculated differently in each country, and in the case
of Germany and Switzerland there’s a 27 centimeter difference.
When engineers tried to factor this in, they missed a negative sign, so instead of neutralising
the difference it was doubled instead.
All these details count!!
2.
Mars Climate Orbiter
Since its discovery by Galileo in 1610, Mars has captivated people’s imagination!
I mean, some people even want to live there!!
We love researching Mars!
It took hundreds of years to develop the technology to actually visit the red planet but finally,
in 1971, Mariner 9 became the first probe to enter its orbit.
Since then, a number of probes have been to Mars, but there was much excitement about
the Mars Climate Orbiter because it was going to monitor the planet’s weather systems
and relay data from the Mars Polar lander, after it arrived in September of 1999.
Something went very wrong, though, and after a 286 day journey, the probe came within 36
miles of Mars, about 60 miles closer than intended, and 15 miles lower than its functional
height.
Its propulsion system overheated and the engine failed to complete its burn, leaving it to
plough through the atmosphere and beyond the planet- left to float in space forever.
It’s not uncommon for space missions to go awry, but this one went wrong for the most
simple of reasons.
NASA had, for many years, used metric measurements for all their missions but one of their contractors,
Lockheed Martin, had been using Imperial measurements.
With 1 metre equalling 3.2 feet, it’s clear to see how this error could lead to major
issues in calculations.
1.
Ronald Wayne
Ronald Wayne was one of the three founders of Apple in 1976, alongside Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak, but you’d be forgiven for not recognizing his name.
The reason for this is that he sold his 10% stake in the company just 12 days later for
800 dollars.
He was 40 at the time, and has said that he felt out of his depth standing in the shadow
of intellectual giants’ who were half his age.
He didn’t really believe, or he really needed the money back.
In the following years, while his co-founders went on to become multi-millionaires, Wayne
remained on a modest income but he has no regrets- except for one.
He was responsible for writing up the original Apple contract that defined the three founders’
roles.
Not thinking he would need it anymore, he sold it to an autograph collector in 2000
for $500.
In 2011, the contract would go on to sell for 1.6 million dollars, something that Waynes
says summed up the story of his life.
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