Lb-Ft
FFS, just adopt the metric system already. And “lb” is not a force unit. Also don’t capitalize unit abbreviations unless named after scientists.
Mercifully, g=9.8 everywhere on Earth’s surface, so we use weight interchangeably with mass, but yes, we should weigh ourselves in Newton: “I need to lose 10kg, so I can reach my ideal weigh of 700N” :P
Mercifully, g=9.8 everywhere on Earth’s
Big nope. It depends not only on height, but also on density of stuff under ground.
I’d say it’s more of a “small yes” than a “big nope.”
While gravity does vary, it goes from about 9.76 to about 9.83.
All of which does, in fact, round to 9.8
We already have a permanently inhabited base outside Earth (ISS) with effectively zero gravity and there might be one on the Moon or Mars in 100 years. We should pass treaties to only use metric in space – a probe has been lost to unit confusion already.
It’s confusing, since “pound” is used for both force and mass.
1 lbm is roughly 0.45 kg
1 lbf is the force required to accelerate a 1 slug (32.2 lbm) mass 1 ft/s^2.
I don’t know what the imperial system standards committee was up to, but I’ve never met a slug that was 32.2 lbm
As someone who’s all about science and all the things that use metric as it’s standard, I understand why us Americans argue for imperial measurements.
We know them.
I can general look at something and relatively tell how big it is based on my experience with the imperial system.
I’m not saying metric isn’t better but there’s also different languages with some of them being able to express certain emotions or features better than others. Yet you don’t see people demanding we all adapt a singular language.
You should start by adopting metric in anything remotely scientific. Like
- voltage ✔️
- current ✔️
- power ❗ - horses are no longer really relevant, not to mention this - at least appliances use watts
- pressure ❌ - we got lucky that 10⁵ pascals is around 1 atmosphere so use
Paorbar, notmmHgorPSI- BTW,
PSIis a dumpster fire of an abbreviation, the correct one islbf/in²
- BTW,
- force ❌ - the
lb/lbfconfusion is not worth it when we have newtons - energy ❗ - joules and watt-hours are both fine, calories, electronvolts and TNT-tons less so, but don’t use
BTUwhich nobody can really comprehend, or gasoline-gallon-equivalents that nobody knows how to translate to anything else - gun caliber ✔️
- engine volume ☑ (it’s
cm³orml, notccFFS)- strange that motorcycle and gun enthusiasts are the few users of metric length & volume measurement in the US - too bad that these two measurements are never really used in calculations or conversion
- torque ❌ - this post says
Lb-Ftwhich is wrong on so many levels - data ✔️ - OK but data rates should be abbreviated
MB/sorkb/s, notkbps,Kb/s,kbit/sorMbit - wire diameter ❌❌ - holy shit, AWG is such a mess - larger wire is smaller number and the formula is so insane that people use lookup tables, also you’re afraid of decimal or negative numbers so large wires are 00, 000 etc.
Can you imagine having different units across the world for voltage or data? Like a 2¾-lemon battery or a 2 million floppy hard drive. That would be absolutely insane.
There is an awful lot of inconsistency in the imperial system too, like pound being abbreviated lb, P (in PSI) or even £, or miles being mi or M in MPH
You acknowledge what they really mean is ft lbf right? Usually pronounced foot pounds. It’s a common unit of torque in the imperial system. I feel like people are just jumping on the bandwagon. This is coming from a diehard Nm preferrer, we need to choose our battles. How bout we die on the hill of bite force being measured with units of pressure? Like really? Fucking pressure? Utterly meaningless as a unit of comparison between bite strength of animals, since all you need to get a bigger number is SHARPER FUCKING TEETH.
Recommended units for data have been mibibytes (MiB), gibibytes (GiB), etc. for a few years now
They’re more accurate because they use powers of two (actually 1024 instead of 1000)
About torque though: If my memory doesn’t betray me, one Newtonmeter is 100 grams hooked to a one meter long lever. Is that really different from one pound hanging off a one foot lever? I might be wrong, since I was born metric and have no clue in general.
Pounds are a unit of money. lbf (poundforce) is a misnomer, it’s actually the pressure required to stamp the King’s portrait into a £1 coin. Slightly changes with each monarch – or by a lot whenever they switch to cheaper materials because of devaluation. The frequent redefining of poundforce is now a major consequence of Brexit. /s
