What's heavier - a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?
- Thread starter g__day
- Start date
Actually,
A British pound is roughly equal to a an American dollar. (worth more actually) Gold is about 400$ an ounce. So if a pound was a pound then the basic unit of measure for money in Brittan would be somewhere around 7,000 bucks.
Which means that a Pound of feather is a whole lot heavier than a pound of Gold.. at least in England.
A British pound is roughly equal to a an American dollar. (worth more actually) Gold is about 400$ an ounce. So if a pound was a pound then the basic unit of measure for money in Brittan would be somewhere around 7,000 bucks.
Which means that a Pound of feather is a whole lot heavier than a pound of Gold.. at least in England.
Bigus Dickus
Regular
erm, I think you should read through this, since the OP has already given his intended answer
If we squeeze the pound of feathers into the same volume as the pound of gold, the difference in pain would likely be un-measurable._xxx_ said:If I hit you in the face with a pound of feathers, you'll feel less pain then if hit with a pound of gold
Diplo said:Not really. 1 GBP (£) = 1.75 USD ($) which is not roughly equivalent in my book (unless you want to trade dollars for sterling with me
Tell that to big electronics companies, still to this day ripping us off with skewed exchange rates!!
K.I.L.E.R said:
Pounds are context sensitive based on what you're measuring. Mention "precious metals" and you skip to the Troy weight system. Mention anything else and you are on the Avoirdupois system.
Whether you measure weight (mass * acceleration due to gravity) or mass doesn't change the answer if you are using "pounds" as the generator of your numbers. It's easy to see if A1 <> A2 then 9.81 * A1 <> 9.81 * A2, so mass or weight - the result is unchanged.
Converting from pounds to Kgs doesn't avoid the issue either. You have to account for which pounds to use dependent on the material you are measuring, as the SI units presumes you are not weighing precious metals, the figure is wrong if you are as it's based on the wrong pounds scale for this specific conversion.
A Troy pound is 5760 grains (about 373.24 g), while an avoirdupois pound is 7000 btw. The problem starts and ends there with that convention.
PS
Troy pounds, like Tower pounds are falling into dis-use, but Troy ounces are still very much in use in most countries in the world - so the problem persists!
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IgnorancePersonified
Regular
I like the guys name 'Dick Pound' from the IOC.... always made me laugh on the news.
Not unless you wish to re-write the laws of Newton and Einstein it doesn't, gravity depends on mass alone (well kinetic energy too if your kinetic energy levels are extremely high). So 1 kg of feathers has the same weight at sea level at the equator as a kg of gold in the same spot (roughly 9.81 Newtons (kg meteres per second squared) directed towards the Earths core).
Gubbi - exactly - and it used to be alot worse, for instance if I tell you I probably weight 4.5 slugs can you guess that's about 86 kilograms? Also feathers is (was) a unit of weight in itself! There are alot of occupation specific weights and measures used in the olde imperial system. It was far worse than you can imagine today!
XXX - Gold is still Troy, you like wikipedia so here's the link for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight
Troy Ounce
A troy ounce, the only currently used unit of the system, is 480 grains, somewhat heavier than an avoirdupois ounce (437.5 grains). A grain is exactly 64.798 91 mg, hence one troy ounce is exactly 31.103 476 8 g, about 10 per cent more than the avoirdupois ounce, which is exactly 28.349 523 125 g. The troy ounce is the only ounce used in the pricing of precious metals, such as gold and silver, and this is the only remaining use of the troy ounce. In troy weight, there are 12 ounces in a pound, rather than 16 in the more-common avoirdupois system.
Troy Pound
A troy pound is 5760 grains (about 373.24 g), while an avoirdupois pound is 7000 grains (about 453.59 g).
- amazing huh?
XXX - Gold is still Troy, you like wikipedia so here's the link for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight
Troy Ounce
A troy ounce, the only currently used unit of the system, is 480 grains, somewhat heavier than an avoirdupois ounce (437.5 grains). A grain is exactly 64.798 91 mg, hence one troy ounce is exactly 31.103 476 8 g, about 10 per cent more than the avoirdupois ounce, which is exactly 28.349 523 125 g. The troy ounce is the only ounce used in the pricing of precious metals, such as gold and silver, and this is the only remaining use of the troy ounce. In troy weight, there are 12 ounces in a pound, rather than 16 in the more-common avoirdupois system.
Troy Pound
A troy pound is 5760 grains (about 373.24 g), while an avoirdupois pound is 7000 grains (about 453.59 g).
- amazing huh?
Cartoon Corpse
Veteran
a block of gold around 14 inches square weighs a ton!
a cubic yard of water weighs a ton.
i remember, as a tot, being amazed at these revelations.
and am still amazed at the number of people whom had no clue about this as adults (jipped in education i guess)
what is the natural volume (settled under atmospheric pressure at sea level i guess) of feathers that equals a ton? probably enough to smother you at least.
a cubic yard of water weighs a ton.
i remember, as a tot, being amazed at these revelations.
and am still amazed at the number of people whom had no clue about this as adults (jipped in education i guess)
what is the natural volume (settled under atmospheric pressure at sea level i guess) of feathers that equals a ton? probably enough to smother you at least.
