Re: operational F, m, and a (velocity measurements with fish-scal es)

["RAUBER, JOEL" <JOEL_RAUBER@SDSTATE.EDU>]

John D wrote:

> We are losing all perspective here.  I thought this thread
> was interesting
> because it asked whether every measurement of force was implicitly a
> measurement of mass*acceleration.

I agree 100% with the above statement.  Although, I was thinking by "every
measurement of force", every measurement of an unkown force.  I'm not sure
this is clear, and why the distinction may be important; but I hope it will
be clarified in other posts.

If one has already established that k*x is the way to calculate the spring
force that a spring scale exerts on an object that it is attached to; then
an instantaneous snapshot is sufficient to say that the spring scale exerts
a force k*x on the object at that instant of time.

If you thought I was disagreeing with the above, I can understand a lot of
your concern with my statements.  (I'm still a little concerned about the
situation when the scale is at rest relative to a *non-inertial* reference
frame; but let's leave that be for the moment.)

John, I'm resetting the discussion, I hope we can regain the perspective and
get it back to the interesting level.

Joel R.