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

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> > *This is the same sort of misnomer as "gravimeter". A pan balance is
> > conventionally used on the surface of Earth. It compares the inertial
> > forces exerted on two masses, not the gravitational forces alone.
>
> Would you expand on this please.  What do you mean by inertial force?  I
> do not
> think of inertia as a force.  You must have something in mind here that is not
> clear to me.

My meaning here is nonstandard; thanks for asking. In this case the
meaning is that any force which acts on all bodies in proportion to
their masses (their coefficients of inertia) is an inertial force.
The category includes forces which act in accelerated frames of
reference - and gravity! Conventionally gravity is not included in
this category.