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The weirdest thing about American culture (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/funny@lemmy.ml
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[–] 2 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Yes, and 1 pound is everywhere 1 pound, even on the Moon. The US don't have even a different unit for weight and mass. because when the imperial system was invented they thought that it was the same.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (3 children)

    Uh... But a pound IS a pound on the moon, it's a unit of force/weight not mass (I wish we [the US] used metric, just being annoyingly pedantic for fun)

    Edit: Aaaand apparently my brain didn't read your whole comment, you already addressed the weight/mass thing. Long day, laying in bed w headache, can't read

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    You say it, a Pound is a Pound weight on earth, but weight depends on gravity, so a Pound is only 1/6 Pound on the Moon Imperial system is obsolet crap, maybe enough for a farmer, but in tecnology, science, where you need to work with measures of μ, feet and inches are as usefull like roman numbers for integrals.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    A pound is still a pound on the moon, since it's a unit of force not mass. It just requires more mass for a scale to measure that force. I'm an engineer that works on spacecraft, I know units, and hate the imperial system and all the conversions I have to do

    Edit: and it's still useful to differentiate between mass and weight/force, just depends on the context. A doctor would want to know an astronaut's mass to accurately track health. But writing up a fitness plan to maintain muscle mass and bone density, force/weight is more relevant because squatting 100 kilograms on the moon isn't as useful a metric as setting it to a specific force in pounds/newtons

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