this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
729 points (98.4% liked)

Science Memes

10348 readers
1988 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
729
Hatzegopteryx (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
171 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The article you linked to does not mention at any point that LBS is a mass, or at all uses the word mass at any point throughout. In fact, it breifly at the end mentions "1 lb=0.45359237 kilogram" as well as "1 Newton=0.224809 pound force" which could indicate a difference between LBF and LBM distinctions.

It's commonly understood that you will weigh a different amount of lbs on the moon than on earth. Because it isn't a mass. It's a force of gravity.

There is also evidence in the form of lbs/in^2 being a common measurement, which would be completely nonsense in the context of mass.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I love educational threads like these.

Even though the original point was "using international standard units makes it clearer for everyone"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah it is pretty fun.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Alright, lets look at the US Customary Units and their definitions. Here is the section called "Mass and Weight". As you can see, everything is defined in metric units of mass. You won't find even pound-force to be part of the Customary units. I couldn't find any source saying that pound (not "pound-force") is a unit of force. However, there was an agreement (I think in 1955) to define the pound in kg.

it breifly at the end mentions "1 lb=0.45359237 kilogram" as well as "1 Newton=0.224809 pound force"

That basically implies that lb (pound, imperial unit) is a unit of mass and "pound-force" (non-imperial unit, part of the British Engineering Units) is a unit of force. Thus, pound (on its own) is a unit of mass, right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

British Engineering Units are not a part of the US-Imperial System, but since I never specified I suppose it's a good argument.