3 ms·
One of those pointless little distinctions that English language makes but many other European languages don't. Another example is "velocity" vs "speed"—what o
by Joker_vD 6y ago
One of those pointless little distinctions that English language makes but many other European languages don't.
Another example is "velocity" vs "speed"—what other vector quantity has two distinct names, one for the vector, another for the vector's magnitude? The acceleration doesn't, for example; and distance and displacement are two slightly different concepts that deserve two distinct names.
- jbarberu 6y agoWeight and mass comes to mind.
- jkonline 6y agoWhoa... That's heavy #groan
- binbag 6y agoWeight isn't the vector quantity of mass. It's mass times acceleration, e.g. gravitational acceleration, g. In other words, it's a force.
- ghaff 6y agoIt's also one of the places where US units really break down. Working with pound-force, pound-mass, and slugs is really easy to mess up if you have to work that way. You're often better converting to SI, doing whatever calculations you have to do, and then converting back at the end.
- binbag 6y agoYeh, in general the term is just misused and confusing.