I found this on Google, thread All this anti-metric talk, jingoism, and ugh...
Someone needs to be made aware that for instance on the moon 1 lbm = 0.16 lbf
(appr), while the natural constant 9.8 m/s2 is universally the same.
In the Technical system we had 1 kgm = 1 kgf at sea level, but on the moon,
again, 1 kgm = 0.16 kgf (appr).
And I think that the factor 1 only applies exactly at 45 degrees N or S. Or am
I wrong?
The essence of SI is using the factor 1 only in this case we stumble on
something external and unchangeable. Do these ifp goons really think that the
SI people dreamed up a factor like 9.8 on a rainy Sunday afternoon? I think so!
A so-called 'engineer' with whom Marcus and I had a quarrel some time ago, also
blamed the factor 9.8 on SI.
Han
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking
Date: 2000-10-30 22:11:51 PST
"Mark & Juanita" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > the cubic volume of a gallon,
>
> 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches and weighs 8 lbs
>
> > or what your own mass is or even what the
> > U.S. unit for mass is!
>
> US unit for mass: slug (or lb-m = 1/32 lb-f)
Pound-mass (lbm), also. It exerts 1 pound force (lbf) due to gravitational
pull at sea level. Dividing by 1 is simpler than remembering how many
Newtons a kilogram mass exerts. (And what's with this 9.8 m/sec^2 stuff
anyway?)
Beyond that, I've been wondering how long a metric second should be. Should
there be 10 metric-hours in a metric-day, or 20 hours? Ooops! that's still
wrong: 100 kiloseconds to a day, maybe? January 1 will always be a problem
for metric clocks, since there is physical meaning to both day and year,
neither of which fit well with 10.
In for a pence, in for a pound, what? Tradition dies hard, as pointed out.
Mike.
