Re:Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics
by kergonath on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @02:09AM
(#28769753)
I have been to the US quite regularly, and been living in the UK for a number of years, and I have never seen someone using pounds as a unit of force instead of a unit of mass meaning roughly 500g, give or take. Second meaning was about 1.20€.
FWIW, the pound is a proper unit of mass: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass) .
Re:Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics
by syncsynchalt on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @10:58AM
(#28773926)
I'm a civil engineer. In statute terms pound is the unit of force and slug is the unit of mass. That might have colored my thinking.
Re:Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics
by lotsofpulp on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @07:11PM
(#28766922)
Oh yes, that would make sense.
They likely changed it from lb to kg because that would be more friendly to an international audience, without realizing that lb is a measure of weight and kg is a measure of mass. Therefore they didn't know to change "weight" to "mass".