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Re: What is weight? (was Re: Internal or external?)



Interesting; if the weight is not the same thing as "the force
of gravity" then what is it? You would probably say "weight
is zero in a free-falling elevator". Right? So what is weight?
Would you say it is another force? It is the reaction force
from the floor below me, and the spring above me.

My weight is zero if the acceleration is g, it not zero if the
acceleration is not g. Acceleration becomes the "cause" of
a force. Something opposite to what we are accustomed to.
Is this what you want us to think about, John?

You wrote:

On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, Jerome Epstein wrote:

From the viewpoint of basic NEwtonian mechanics, weight is just the
force of gravitational attraction, GMm/R^2, in all inertial frames.

But why isn't it enough to call that "the force of gravity" and leave the
term "weight" with a more durable and operationally meaningful definition?
Do you really want to deny that astronauts are "weightless"? Do you want
to miss out on the pedagogical fruits of distinguishing between
"weightlessness" and "the absence of gravitational force"?