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"... including all small effects the distinction is relevant. If you
are trying to get them to just do free body diagrams then usually they need
to ignore buoyancy and rotational effects from the Earth.
As a measured quantity it is the (gravitational field strength - rotational
component)/unit mass, or essentially the local gravitational acceleration.
Notice this is again in "classical Newtonian" mechanics, and not in general
relativity.
Of course from a practical point of view one does not need to make the
distinction. But if you are trying to get students to draw proper free body
diagrams, including all small effects the distinction is relevant. If you
are trying to get them to just do free body diagrams then usually they need
to ignore buoyancy and rotational effects from the Earth.
Certainly to an engineer it is the local field strength because they do not
need to consider the small but real classical effects. Engineers use
simplified models. To a chemist the gravitational force often does not even
exist, so chemists do not make much distinction between weight and mass.
You have to know what model you are using, and what model you need to have
the students learn.
John M. Clement
Houston, TX
I thought g was the gravitational field strength, not an acceleration.
Paul Lulai
Physics Instructor, Science Olympiad Coach,
.: Medtronic - St Anthony RoboHuskie Team 2574:. Faculty Advisor
Saint Anthony Village Senior High School, ISD 282
3303 33rd Avenue N.E.
Saint Anthony Village, MN 55418
(w) 612-706-1144
(fax) 612-706-1140