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Date:      Thu, 16 Mar 2000 14:13:06 -0800
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Mark Ovens <mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
Cc:        Brett Taylor <brett@peloton.runet.edu>, Paul Richards <paul@originative.co.uk>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Useful Metric Conversions
Message-ID:  <20000316141306.C2841@mojave.worldwide.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <20000316215216.A248@parish>; from mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org on Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 09:52:16PM %2B0000
References:  <20000316182207.C235@parish> <Pine.BSF.4.10.10003161417340.57499-100000@peloton.runet.edu> <20000316215216.A248@parish>

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On Thursday, 16 March 2000 at 21:52:16 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 02:18:29PM -0500, Brett Taylor wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Mark Ovens wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 02:10:59AM +0000, Paul Richards wrote:
>>
>>>>>   453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
>>>>
>>>> I'm not getting that one at all?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Neither do I. I didn't dream them up, I just posted them.
>>
>> 454 grams to the pound (roughly).
>
> Yes, I knew that. What I don't know is what "graham crackers" are, or
> is it just word-play on gram?
>
>> Why you'd compare a mass to a weight is
>> anyone's guess, but that's probably just the physics in me talking.  :-)
>>
>
> Both the imperial and metric systems mix up mass and weight. I was
> always explained to me that this is because the average non-technical
> person can't understand the difference; buting 1kg of sugar is easy to
> grasp, but 9.81 Newtons?

The metric system made a distinction between weight and mass right
from the beginning.  The gram was the unit of mass, not weight; the
unit of weight was the bary, which dropped out of use.

Greg
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