Mass measurement

[Uth]

Hello everybody!

 

My question is about the measurement of mass:

 

Are the American and British pound equal?

 

Do Americans use the Troy pound?

 

Thanks in advance!

[insane_alien]

use kilograms. SI is a brilliant standard used by about 96% of the world and there is only one kilogram.

 

british and american pounds are not equal if i remember right.

[Uth]

Thanks!

 

We in my country already use the SI units, but I just want to know the difference if there's

[DrP]

Check this out then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass) There is a table on that page defining all the different weights in comparison to the SI.

 

Looks like the troy pound was used for jewellry mainly.

 

WIKI QUOTE: "In 1958 the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. The international avoirdupois pound was defined as exactly 453.59237 grams."

[Uth]

It seems they're different according to the following site:

 

http://www.jacquardsystems.com/MComputing/1998/4/p14.htm

 

Quotation:

 

{

An American pound is 0.3732 kilograms (which is the troy pound), so the comparison would be "true". A British pound is 0.4536 kilograms (which is the avoirdupois pound)

}

[insane_alien]

and this is the problem with the old system: same units, different meanings.

 

its caused several spacecraft to mis targets by millions of kilometers and planes to run out of fuel in mid air.

[Phi for All]

I've always hated the pound. Besides being hard to convert, it has such bad connotations. Pounding someone means you're beating them up. Someone pounding on your door is never bringing good news. Stray dogs are taken to the pound, where they're destroyed if they aren't claimed quickly.

 

And the abbreviations for pound are "lb" (two letters that aren't even in the word) and "#", a symbol that most people also equate with "number" or the button that annoys you most when leaving a voice mail. How confusing is *that*?!

[insane_alien]

and its also the currency of the UK £££

 

i don't mind it for the currency (although is does derive from a pound (lb) of sterling silver) but hopefully we will transition to the euro soon.

[swansont]

And the abbreviations for pound are "lb" (two letters that aren't even in the word) and "#", a symbol that most people also equate with "number" or the button that annoys you most when leaving a voice mail. How confusing is *that*?!

 

Hey, yeah! That's right! And Au isn't in gold, Hg isn't in mercury, and Ag isn't in silver. It's like these science guys were speaking a different farking language or something.

[Phi for All]

and its also the currency of the UK £££

 

i don't mind it for the currency (although is does derive from a pound (lb) of sterling silver) but hopefully we will transition to the euro soon.

We said the same thing about the metric system. Now I know where Americans get our stubborn streak.

 

Hey, yeah! That's right! And Au isn't in gold, Hg isn't in mercury, and Ag isn't in silver. It's like these science guys were speaking a different farking language or something.

Being the most sciencey guy I know, I hold you personally responsible for my confusion.

 

[/tongue out-sticking]

[Gilded]

The United States is like one of those confused, non-conformist high school kids who seem to fight the system just for the sake of fighting, hoping to look really badass.

[Phi for All]

The United States is like one of those confused, non-conformist high school kids who seem to fight the system just for the sake of fighting, hoping to look really badass.

I think we were hoping the rest of you would change to our system, the way you did with English. Even the UK bowed to our mighty will on that.

[CharonY]

hey, yeah! That's right! And au isn't in gold, hg isn't in mercury, and ag isn't in silver. It's like these science guys were speaking a different farking language or something.

 

lol!

 

I think we really should get over English as science language and go back to Latin!

[insane_alien]

latin is dead, we'd have to import so many new words, update the grammar and so on.

 

lets just keep our modern languages evolving. a big chunk of them evolved out or latin anyway.

[D H]

It seems they're different according to the following site:

This site is a prime example of why real engineers do not let software engineers develop models of physical models.

 

While jewelers and gunpowder do use the Troy scale, Americans use the international avoirdupois pound for everything else. A pound of produce in the US has a mass of 453.59237 grams.

[Uth]

This site is a prime example of why real engineers do not let software engineers develop models of physical models.

 

While jewelers and gunpowder do use the Troy scale, Americans use the international avoirdupois pound for everything else. A pound of produce in the US has a mass of 453.59237 grams.

 

Thanks D H! thanks everybody for the answers!

[swansont]

The United States is like one of those confused, non-conformist high school kids who seem to fight the system just for the sake of fighting, hoping to look really badass.

 

On the contrary, we're the lazy, whiny rich kid who doesn't want to anything that might require effort or be unpopular with the peer-group.

[Gilded]

On the contrary, we're the lazy, whiny rich kid who doesn't want to anything that might require effort or be unpopular with the peer-group.

 

A rather accurate description, but looking at the economy I'm not sure about the "rich"...

 

I think we were hoping the rest of you would change to our system, the way you did with English. Even the UK bowed to our mighty will on that.

 

Bah, people are just polite enough to occasionally stoop to your level and mock you in your own language. It's not like English is that universal. Should the Finnish inquisition catch me speaking or writing English I could be sentenced to twelve years in jail followed by execution through simultaneous stoning, burning, drowning and hanging. And nobody expects the Finnish inquisition!

[Pete]

I think we were hoping the rest of you would change to our system, the way you did with English. Even the UK bowed to our mighty will on that.

We didn't change to English. The Pilgrims came from England and thus were already speaking English.

 

Pete

[CharonY]

A rather accurate description, but looking at the economy I'm not sure about the "rich"...

Compared to biologists.... sounds about right

[Phi for All]

We didn't change to English. The Pilgrims came from England and thus were already speaking English.

That's what the Englishlanders *want* you to think. You must have read some of their early propaganda.

[linda]

1 British Pound(s) = 1.7646 US Dollar(s)

1 USD = 0.5667 GBP

1 GBP = 1.7646 USD

And i dont no wether they use troy pound or not.

---------------

Linda

Edited September 6, 2008 by YT2095
spammy links removed

[insane_alien]

err... pound as in unit of weight rather than unit of currency.