From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Mon Oct 14 2002 - 20:50:12 MDT
Mike Lorrey wrote:
>>Foot pounds can be a unit of energy too, since it is
>>a force times a distance. But do spare us the archaic
>>units, all of you, and state energy in terms of joules,
>>or newton meters.
>
> Call me archaic, will you? Sounds like bait for another flame war... ;)
> I thought personal attacks were against list rules.... ;)
MIKE! Do let those units perish, fer cryin out loud.
Reason: they cause too much confusion because the
same name being used for a pound mass and a pound
force.
Since I know you are studying engineering, you are
forced to learn the English system, however here is
a tip that will help you not goof the Gc and miss
the answer by a factor of 32. Simply throw out the
unit pound mass. As soon as you see pounds mass,
immediately convert to slugs. Then go ahead and
use the pound force as the amount of force needed
to accelerate one slug one foot per second^2. When
the problem is finished, convert slugs back to
pounds mass, if necessary. That way, all your
equations work the same, regardless of their
being posed in English or sensible units. A
pound works like a big newton and a slug works
like a big kilogram.
Honest, just do it that way and you will always
get the right answers. American engineering
students need to learn only one system. spike
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