Re: What is weight?

[Timothy Folkerts <tfolkert@TIGER.FHSU.EDU>]

> One more thing.  It really makes no sense to speak of *the* value of g at
> some location.  At *any* location, g can take on *any* value depending
> only upon the chosen reference frame.

Perhaps it's just me, but shouldn't a prefered reference frame be obvious,
at least in the Newtonian view?

The quoted statement seems equivalent to saying it makes no sense to talk
about the color of an object, since in a different frame the light may be
red- or blue-shifted.  Naturally we mean here the frame of rest of the
object.

Similarly, isn't there a natural frame here - i.e. the intertial frame
fixed to the earth. (Of course, we can make second order corrections due to
the sun, or the fact that the earth is spinning, etc, but any correction
would be << 9.8 m/s^2).  Isn't g ~ F/m = GM/R^2 in the only reasonable
frame?  (But see my next post for further thoughts)


Tim Folkerts