this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Pounds are a measure of weight (force) not mass like grams. Stone is the imperial measure of mass and slug is the standard unit (US unit). In metric Newtons would be equivalent to pounds.
I came here to say this. A chunk of mass that "weighs" 100 grams is still 100 grams on the moon. A chunk of mass that weighs 1 pound does not weigh 1 pound on the moon.
I think in most common usage people use pounds as a measure of mass (convertible to kg). It’s why when you really mean force the abbreviation lbf (pound-force) exists, as opposed to the now more usual pound-mass.
A pound at one gravity is equivalent to 2.2 kg at 1 gravity. Outside of aerospace there's not really a need to distinguish between mass and weight so it kind of gets used interchangeably.
It just bothers me when people complain about units and then use the wrong kind of unit.
My point is that in common use a pound does refer to mass (not weight). For example the US Code defines that 1 pound = 0.453 592 37 kilogram. See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_(mass).