Like the title. How are we able to convert pounds, which are a unit of force, to kg which is a unit of mass, using a simple scale factor. How are electronic scales able to give us a unit of mass when they measure by using the force enacted on the scale by gravity because all they are doing is using a conversion factor between pounds and kg that shouldn’t exist
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When you see someone doing this, it’s because they’re taking a shortcut, usually without even realizing that they’re doing it. On the surface of the earth, where acceleration due to gravity is roughly 9.81m/s^2 no matter where you are (it DOES change a bit but not by a huge amount), then we can use the force an object applies to the ground to determine what its mass is. In other words, we can treat a unit of force like a unit of mass. Doing so will get you yelled at by physicists, so don’t do this in any scientific or engineering environment.
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