Re: A weighty subject

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> Perhaps I was unclear. Daniell's definition is traditional; I'm
> advocating a different definition. Daniell says g represents the
> gravitational force. I think it should represent the inertial
> force which is measured in the laboratory by a scale.

And, of course, that is at least partially because you (and I) think the
inertial force measured by the scale (neglecting the effects of buoyancy)
*is* the gravitational force.

The fact that one may not want to explain that to an introductory student
is no reason not to give them this useful (and, as they may discover
later, more meaningful) definition of weight.

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm