🚀 go-pugleaf

I forgot to finish what I was saying about the spring scales, John.
If you were describing the process of hanging the mass from the
spring scale in order to determine its weight (I know you don't like
to call the downward gravitational pull on an object weight. 8->  ),
then I object to your calling it the object's mass quite strongly.
Yes, yes, the 2 quantities are directly proportional as long as you
stay in one place.  However, a spring scale calibrated in mass units
for a particular location -- say the earth -- will not necessarily
yield the same value at other places -- say the moon or in an orbiting
space shuttle.  Some sort of balance is a better choice for "massing"
objects.  A double pan balance yields the same result on both moon &
earth.  An inertial balance yields the same result on the earth, the
moon, or in an orbiting space craft.

In my class, we weigh things with a spring scale & we mass things with
a balance.  It is said that you must choose your battles.  This is one
of mine.

I yield the soap box to the next writer.

Cherie                                 Cherie Lehman
clehman@purccvm.bitnet                 West Lafayette High School
clehman@vm.cc.purdue.edu               West Lafayette  IN  47906
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