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Re: definition of weight



My comments on your summary are given below:

On Thu, 23 Aug 2001 15:20:03 -0400 "Carl E. Mungan" <mungan@USNA.EDU>
writes:
A number of you have in the past expounded in great detail upon an
alternative definition of weight as the reaction to the normal force
a spring scale would exert on an object.

Slowly my resistance to this idea has been ground down to the point
that I'd like to try it with my first-semester physics majors this
year.

So, I have written up a summary of my understanding of how this idea
works and how to present it in the typical intro physics course:

http://physics.usna.edu/physics/Faculty/mungan/Scholarship/ScaleWeight.pd
f

I would be greatly pleased if some of you would read this over and
correct/simplify/add to it. -CEM
--
Carl E. Mungan, Asst. Prof. of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
U.S. Naval Academy, Stop 9C, Annapolis, MD 21402-5026
mungan@usna.edu http://physics.usna.edu/physics/faculty/mungan/
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Comments:

Your summary of "weight" reminds me of the teacher who would tell anyone
who asked for the time how to build a watch and other time measurement
devices.
He would also present a long lecture on the meaning of time in different
contexts
and relativity time dilation effects . It certainly would be an
interesting discussion
in a Philosophy of Science course but I would hesitate to present it in
a typical
course of Introductory Physics.

Around the middle of your second page there is a minor error " 2.2
kilograms
weighs one pound at the earth's surface". This would only be true only
at
some distance above (or below) the earth's surface.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
Where our tallest tower , the World Trade Center building, is much too
short
for snatching apples from space shuttles as they fly by)