From the pedantic annoyances dept: It irks me when people talk about something ‘weighing’ some number of kilograms. A gram is a unit of mass. If you’re looking for the metric equivalent of pounds, what you want is newtons.
No, those are both units of force. Grams and kilograms are units of mass; the imperial equivalent is the slug. It’s the hipster unit, you’ve probably never heard of it.
September 15th, 2013 at 5:39 pm
From the pedantic annoyances dept: It irks me when people talk about something ‘weighing’ some number of kilograms. A gram is a unit of mass. If you’re looking for the metric equivalent of pounds, what you want is newtons.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:38 pm
Pound is a unit of mass, newton is a unit of force.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:22 pm
No, those are both units of force. Grams and kilograms are units of mass; the imperial equivalent is the slug. It’s the hipster unit, you’ve probably never heard of it.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:27 am
Wikipedia says pound is both a unit of force and a unit of mass. Lesson learned, thanks!
September 16th, 2013 at 7:44 pm
Wikipedia is wrong. A unit can’t be both a unit of mass and of force. Force = mass times acceleration.
I suppose this is another case of dumbing down the language for people who can’t understand the difference.