Reply To: Richard Branson – Virgin Pledge

[Brian H]

Aeronaut wrote: I was hoping we’d all agreed to disagree on this issue, and I thought the waters had just about cleared. Following Jimmy’s link leads to a discussion of how weight is mass times the force of acceleration. Had I used metric units my multiplier would be 10 or 9.8, depending on the degree of precision I was after.

Clicking the “weight” link in that section goes here: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/mass.html#wgt , which says the same thing. I don’t write this stuff, I just report it, lol.

What it says is that a 2 ton I beam will crush you in space, as on Earth, even though it has no weight in space. Its weight is 64,000 pounds on Earth, 0 pounds in space, and 10,666 pounds on the moon.

Are you mad? A 2 ton I-beam weighs 4,000 lbs. on Earth. That’s what 2 tons means. Really. No doubt about it, no discussion or disagreement possible. Sorry.

Ask your HS science teacher, or anyone here on the Forum. I’ll put every cent I own and will earn in the foreseeable future on the answer. No shit, Sherlock.