Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtech.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!nsc!amdahl!rtech!jeff
From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.puzzle
Subject: Re: feathers vs. gold (really mass vs. force vs. weight)
Message-ID: <800@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Dec-85 05:09:03 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.800
Posted: Sat Dec 21 05:09:03 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Dec-85 04:26:11 EST
References: <846@ecsvax.UUCP> <902@ecsvax.UUCP> <456@eneevax.UUCP> <1671@cae780.UUCP> <259@ut-dillo.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 26

> <>
> > Have I missed something?  Grams and pounds are both units of the same thing -
> > feel free to call it FORCE if you wish.  The "puzzle" makes use of the wild
> > inconsistencies of "English measures", with different sized ounces and a
> > different number of those ounces in the corresponding pounds.  So what's the
> > problem?
>  
> You most assuredly have missed something.  Grams are a unit of *mass*.  This
> is a measure of the amount of "stuff".  Pounds are a unit of *force*.  This
> is a measure of how hard something is "pushed" or "pulled".
> -- 
> Darin Adler	{gatech,harvard,ihnp4,seismo}!ut-sally!ut-dillo!darin

There are two units called "pounds".  One of them is a unit of force, and the
other is a unit of mass.  A slug is the amount of mass that would weigh,
in pounds, the same as the acceleration wherever you happen to be.  For
instance, one slug at sea level weighs about 32 pounds.  A poundal is the
unit of force which will cause a one-pound mass to accelerate one foot per
second per second.  Therefore, one pound of force equals about 32 poundals,
and one slug at sea level equals about 32 pounds of mass.
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff