Re: A weighty subject

[Michael Edmiston <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>]

Let's try this again.  I have a letter, I have a spring scale that
reads in ounces, and I have an electronic balance that reads in ounces.
 Here in my lab in Bluffton, I put the envelope on the spring scale and
it reads 1.2 oz.  I put the envelope on the electronic balance and it
reads 1.2 oz.  No problem.

I take all of these to the moon.  I put the envelope on the spring
scale and it says the weight is 0.2 oz.  I put the envelope on the
electronic balance and it says the weight is still 1.2 oz.

Jim, what do you say the weight of this envelope is?  And, of course,
regardless of your answer, at least one of the instruments used on the
moon MUST be giving an incorrect answer, because they are not giving
the same answer.

If you don't believe this then you do not understand how many modern
balances work, and you might want to question your own tenure:)


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.              Phone/voice-mail:       419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics        FAX:                    419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department            E-Mail                  edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817



-----Original Message-----
From:   Jim Green [SMTP:JMGreen@SISNA.COM]
Sent:   Wednesday, October 13, 1999 11:51 AM
To:     PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject:        Re: A weighty subject

At 10:16 AM 10/13/99 -0400, Michael Edmiston <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>
gives several vacuous arguments and then says --

> I routinely switch one of them to ounces when I need to "weigh" a
> letter or package that I intend to mail.  (Why convert from grams to
> ounces in my head, if the scale will do it for me.)  Now suppose it
> says that my envelope weighs 1.20 ounces.  In my lab at Bluffton
> College, that is probably pretty darn close.  But if I take that same
> envelope and same balance to the moon, it will still say that my
> envelope weighs 1.20 ounces... and Jim, that is wrong.

Utter non-sense -- setting aside that mass/weight fog which we all
understand well enough, to say that _my_ use of the word "weight" is
wrong
is just silly.  Further, does anyone really think that the weight of an
object on Earth (measured by any means) is a Universal constant of some
import?

And we are not talking about accuracy here, but of definition.

Perhaps I should claim that _my_ definition of "weight" is correct and
all
others are "wrong"

Yes, I declare that whatever my bathroom scale reads for weight is
correct
anywhere I choose to perform the measurement and all other measurements
are
"wrong".  How would anyone prove me mistaken?  Oh you want to use
_your_
bathroom scale?  You want to do some gymnastics with gravitational
fields?  I will just say the _you_ are "wrong" and not let you publish
in
_my_ journal -- besides, _I_ am on the promotion and tenure committee.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen