Re: Energy in WTC Tower Collapes

From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 20:57:52 MDT


Lee Corbin wrote:
> Voila:
>
> 1 ft-lb = 1.355818 newtons.

Oy Vey! A ft-lb is a force times a distance. A newton
is a force. See what a mess the English units
cause us? It is Britain's revenge for that nasty
General Washington affair back in 76.

A newton is about a quarter of a pound, if
you really really must know it in those terms.
2.2046/9.81 = 0.225 pounds force to the newton.
About the weight of a stick of butter.

> Proof: 1kg weight (not mass) is equal to
> 2.2046 pounds, as one knows from
> daily life.

Oy veeeeeyyyyyy! No Lee, no no my son, do not
mess up the MKS system the way the English system
is already messed up. Do not even utter the words
1 Kg weight. Baaad boy Lee! Bad!

Kilograms are mass units only. ONLY!

The English system can be partially rehabilitated
if one throws out the unit pound mass, and uses
pound ONLY for force and slugs ONLY for mass. On
the earth, a slug weighs 32.2 pounds. That way
the equations all work the same way between
systems, and the only damage to our collective
American psyche is that we have wacky looking units.
But we still get the right answers.

> So from now on I hope that it takes less than
> hours to convert from ft-lbs (should the dreadful
> need arise again) to newtons. Lee

Did you mean ft-lbs to newton meters? A newton meter
is a unit of work, also called a joule. A joule per
second is a watt. Great system, very simple,
elegant, none of those ugly horsepower units.

Speaking of which, a horsepower is 550 ft pounds
per second. Whats up with that? That must have
been one flimsy pony, with the flu, to only pull
that much. Hell, a strong *human* can make almost
that much power in a short burst. spike



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