What's heavier - a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?

[Altcon]

How many folk get this right me wonders, and how many fall into either the simple or the none too obivous trap?

you're not serious, right?

 

[idiom]

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).

And there you've just added information that was not in the original question. It didn't say they were in the same spot, maybe one's on earth and the other is in space for some reason.

The value of weight depends on the gravitation field surrounding the mass.

 

[Mintmaster]

The whole thing hinges on the semantic duality of the word "pound".

Agreed. I think Mfa's answer was best.

A heavier item requires a greater force to lift. When you take bouyancy into account from the atmosphere, the feathers are lighter. It's true that pounds can be used to measure force, but you always say "pounds force" in that situation.

Taking the most commonly accepted definition of each word and assuming the comparison is done on earth, the feathers are lighter.

EDIT: For correctness.

 

[g__day]

Idiom, I also didn't say what planet you're on, but why assume two external properties are arbitarily different? Its like saying "ah but if the feathers where in a vaccuum on the top of Mount Everest and the gold is in a mecury bath 20 km below the crust of the Earth..."

You go too far assuming its a differnece in external varable that rig the result.

Mintmaster - you must have missed my second post sayin git had nothing to do with buyoance or air pressure I guess.

And a semantic duality refers to pound as a verb, noun or adjective - not as a lack of convention in a standard that is commonly mistaken to be universal. Whlist the concept of trying to define the source of the puzzle is admirable, the term coined to describe it is I believe sub-optimal.

 

[MuFu]

And a semantic duality refers to pound as a verb, noun or adjective...

No it doesn't; they are syntactical concepts. The duality of "pound" is present at the semantic (and not syntactic or, crucially, semiotic) level.

 

[idiom]

g__day, I'm not assuming the difference, I'm just saying you can't really assume there isn't a difference.

 

[Jabbah]

Troy Ounce
A troy ounce, the only currently used unit of the system...

Ooops, a pound is a pound then? May be time to rephrase the question to use ounces. Interesting bit of trivia though.

 

[Sage]

Gold is about 400$ an ounce

actually, it's quite a bit above that- $462.55 at last close.

 

[g__day]

Troy pounds are still used - just not universally enforced - they are still dominant.

idiom - it's the weight system that dictates this result, I'm assuming not one iota, you seemed to miss that connection in your ponderances. Given the weight system itself enforces this result by being material dependent my wishes and predijuces are taken right out of the equation all together.

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Kind of like a pint is a pint.

Exactly! Which is more beer, a pint of Guinness or a pint of piss-w^H^H^H^H^H budweiser?

Nite_Hawk