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Scott Cram![]() Inner circle 2677 Posts ![]() |
Which is heavier, a pound of feathers, or a pound of gold?
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Cranial Fermentator![]() Loyal user 236 Posts ![]() |
I've been told that a pound of feathers is heavier, because gold is commonly weighed by a weight system where a pound is 12 ounces, not 16. I have no idea if this true or not!
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thefifth![]() Regular user 105 Posts ![]() |
Someone told me that worked with "ton of gold or ton of feathers" as well. That there is the metric ton and the standard ton.
[email]info@williampenix.com[/email]
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mike paris![]() Regular user 179 Posts ![]() |
A pound is a pound ,a ton is a ton,all that gliters is not gold,so that's a feather in your cap, they weigh the same.
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Nir Dahan![]() Inner circle Munich, Germany 1390 Posts ![]() |
Well depends if you have the scale on the moon or on earth. Archimedes' law works for gasses as well as for liquids...
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TomasB![]() Inner circle Sweden 1143 Posts ![]() |
I think the centre of gravity for the feathers is further from the centre of the mass of the earth, so it needs to have more mass to weigh the same as the gold.
/Tomas |
mike paris![]() Regular user 179 Posts ![]() |
If a feather weighs a gram and a piece of gold weighs 1000 grams then surely,1000 feathers and the gold would be the same weight.If you stand on a set of scales and you weight is 80 kilo,s,if you raise one leg off the scales are you saying your weight will be different?
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Sapient![]() Regular user 126 Posts ![]() |
But weight does vary with distance from the center of gravity. If you weigh 80 kilos, and then move the scale up into orbit, you would weigh less and die from the cold and lack of atmosphere.
But I think the question implies "pound" as a measure of force (weight in this case), not of mass. |
mike paris![]() Regular user 179 Posts ![]() |
I don,t disagree with what you say,cause I didn,t know no different,but one thing makes sense,if you were to weigh a pound of feathers,there would be air gaps between the feathers, and so air would have a weight even though it would be small,so that would also put the measurement out.
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Cranial Fermentator![]() Loyal user 236 Posts ![]() |
Actually, Mike, a "pound" may not be a "pound" after all. Gold is measured 12 troy ounces to the *troy* pound, 373.24 grams mass, while feathers are measured by "Avoirdupois pounds." One Avoirdupois pound of feathers is 1.2152 times as heavy as one Troy pound of gold. Actually I don't really much about it, but searched the subject on Google.
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Sapient![]() Regular user 126 Posts ![]() |
Quote:
On 2005-08-17 13:31, mike paris wrote: Air in the feathers makes no difference. That is just part of the atmostpheric pressure. If you push the air our of the feathers, it sits on top of them instead. |
mike paris![]() Regular user 179 Posts ![]() |
Maybe you could weigh the feathers with the troy weights as well,,,,,,,ok so what,s the answer,,,,,,,,maybe someone will say that 1+1 don,t add up to 2,but hey that's another story.We certainly have some clever people on our site.
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Cranial Fermentator![]() Loyal user 236 Posts ![]() |
I apologized if I ruffled any feathers (please pardon the pun, but I couldn't resist it), but I was just repeating the standard answer to an old chestnut. I do recognize your point. Maybe I haven't entered into the intended spirit of this site. Maybe these questions are meant to puzzled and pondered over, not merely answered with a stock reply. I do wonder what's Scott's intended answer was or maybe he posted it as a philosophical query.
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