Weight (unit)

“ The commercial unit of weight is: The kilogramme 1,000 grammes 2·20462125+ pounds avoirdupois.
"What will our farmers, citizens, merchants, tradesmen, and mechanics do with these figures? And will they submit to being obliged to reduce acres, feet, inches, pounds, and ounces by multiplying or dividing by the above figures? ”

“ What kind of a quantity is that which now weighs more, and now weighs less, so to speak? But this apparent deviation from the method of determination commonly used in practical life, that by weight, is, closely considered, an agreement. On a high mountain a heavy mass also is less powerfully attracted to the earth than at the level of the sea, and if it is permitted us in our determinations to neglect the consideration of level, it is only because the comparison of a body with fixed conventional weights is invariably effected at the same level. ”

“ Nevertheless that which excels in size shows greater powers, since it seizes greater weights and has a wider orbe of virtue. For a loadstone weighing one ounce does not lift a large nail as does one weighing a pound, nor does it rule so widely, nor extend its forces; and if from a loadstone of a pound weight a portion is taken away, something of its power will be seen to go also ”

“ To the common mass of the people the use of weights is in the market and the shops. The article weighed is to be carried home for the daily subsistence of the family. Subdivisions of the pound, the half, the quarter of a pound, are often necessary to conciliate the wants and the means of the neediest portion of the people, that portion to whom the justice of weight and measure is a necessity of life, and to whom it is one of the most sacred duties of the legislator to secure that justice, so far as it can be secured by the operation of human institutions. ”

“ All units must be assumed to be equal in that other respect; and this is never accurately true, for one actual pound weight is not exactly equal to another, nor one measured mile's length to another; a nicer balance, or more accurate measuring instruments, would always detect some difference. ”

“ Then weighing what they had borne, whether we should find it to be ten or thirty pounds—I cannot guess how much it might be at this distance—one might safely say, without fear of mistake, "The strength of this young lady is equal to ten, twenty, or thirty pounds"—in other words, "she represents a weight of ten, twenty, or thirty pounds" and by a similar plan people have ascertained the strength of the air—that is, the weight which it represents. They have weighed what it is capable of carrying. ”

“ One pound at A will, according to the rule, balance 2 at B, and 2 at B will balance 4 at C, and 4 at C will balance 8 at D. Therefore 1 pound at A will balance 8 pounds at D. And you see that an equilibrium is effected when the power is to the weight as the product of all the short arms is to the product of all the long arms. The compound lever is used in weighing heavy loads—as hay, coal, etc. You have a representation of the arrangement in Fig. ”

“ What we call a pound weight is a mass of matter attracted by the earth on its surface with a force equal to the weight of sixteen ounces. A pound weight on the surface of the earth weighs sixteen ounces, and all the mighty volume of our planet, with all its mountains, continents and seas, weighs only sixteen ounces on the surface of a pound weight. The earth may still weigh many millions of tons as regards the sun, but as regards a pound weight it only weighs sixteen ounces. ”

“ If I am carrying a small weight, for example, and the addition of an ounce is required to make the burden perceptibly heavier to me, two ounces will have to be added in order that I may notice a difference when I carry twice the weight, and a whole pound when I carry sixteen times the weight. ”

“ The weight of objects is not the same all over the world; a thing which weighs thirty pounds in New York would weigh an ounce more than thirty pounds in a spring-balance in Greenland, and nearly an ounce less at the equator. ”

“ If now a weight of 1 pound is suspended from the bar at some point, say 12, the balance is disturbed, and the bar swings about the point F as a center. The balance can be regained by suspending an equivalent weight at the opposite end of the bar, or by applying a 2-pound weight at a point 3 inches to the left of F. In the latter case a force of 1 pound actually balances a force of 2 pounds, but the 1-pound weight is twice as far from the point of suspension as is the 2-pound weight. The small weight makes up in distance what it lacks in magnitude. ”

“ When there is no weight on the spring, the place to which the indicator points is marked zero. When these scales are manufactured, a pound weight is placed so that it pulls on the spring and the indicator is pulled down to another place, and this is marked one. Scales are thus marked for the number of pounds they are to weigh. The spaces between the pounds marked are divided into equal divisions, such as sixteenths which indicates ounces. These scales cannot be relied on for accuracy, for springs stretch or become weaker as they are used. ”

“ When the scholars have learnt to distinguish the pound, ounce, &c., they may come out in turn and weigh various objects.
It would be well to explain that solid objects occupy less room than lighter substances—that a pound of feathers, e.g., would take up a large space, while a pound of lead would go into a very small compass.
Guessing Game.—When the object to be weighed has been chosen, a number of children are allowed to come out and hold it in turn, and say what they think is its weight. ”

“ What it comes to is this, that if you have a ten-pound weight and a one-pound weight and you drop them together, the ten-pound weight will fall ten times as quickly. The magnitude of the weight settles how quickly it shall fall. That seems to us so astonishing that we can hardly imagine that any one believed it. ”

“ In the gradation of real weights, measures, and coins, it is important to adopt those grades which are most convenient, which require the least expense of capital, time, and labor, and which are least likely to be mistaken for each other. What, then, is the most convenient gradation? The base two gives a series of seven weights that may be used: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 lbs. By these any weight from one to one hundred and twenty-seven pounds may be weighed. ”

“ The responsibility of his job weighs on him a good deal. Ответственность за работу его очень тяготит.
to weigh out отвесить. She asked the storekeeper to weigh out five kilograms of sugar. Она попросила продавца отвесить ей пять кило сахару.
weight вес. The weight of the trunk is a hundred kilograms. Вес этого сундуки — сто кило. or Этот сундук весит сто кило. — I've lost a lot of weight since I've been here. С тех пор как я здесь, я много потерял в весе. • гиря. Another two-kilogram weight should make the scale balance. Для равновесия нужна ещё одна гиря в два кило. ”

“ If the weight be equal, whether they are carrying the ark of the temple or a calf, a nugget of gold or a stone, they will be subject to the law of the weight and their expression can indicate nothing but that weight. ”

“ For instance, if we drop a pound weight a foot on to a scale balance, the work it does is equal to one foot-pound. But if we place it on the scale gently, it will just balance one pound on the other side. ”

“ In all cases the arms must be quite inflexible. A balance made by Ramsden for the Royal Society, is capable of weighing ten pounds, and turns with one hundredth of a grain, which is the seven-millionth part of the weight. ”

“ Perhaps you will wonder how it is that if we have a weight of 15 lbs. pressing on every square inch of our bodies, it does not crush us. And, indeed, it amounts on the whole to a weight of about 15 tons upon the body of a grown man. It would crush us if it were not that there are gases and fluids inside our bodies which press outwards and balance the weight so that we do not feel it at all.
This is why Mr. Glaisher's veins swelled and he grew giddy in thin air. ”

“ We can readily calculate from the formula how much power will be required to raise a given weight; for example, suppose 200 lbs. be attached to the moveable pulley, we find that 111 lbs. must be applied as the power. But in order to raise 200 lbs. one foot, the power exerted must act over two feet; hence the number of foot-pounds required is 2 × 111 = 222. The quantity of energy that is lost is 22 foot-pounds. Out of every 222 foot-pounds applied, 200 are usefully employed; that is to say, about 90 per cent. of the applied energy is utilized, while the remaining 10 per cent. ”

“ It is only because a yard-stick has a fixed and definite length of its own that we are enabled to measure the length of other things by it. It is only because a pound weight has a fixed and definite weight of its own that we are enabled to measure weight of other things by it. ”

“ You must understand that the usual mode of doing business in coal-sheds is this: all the weights only weigh one half of what they are represented to weigh. For instance, the one which is used as the fifty pound weight is hollow, and is, therefore, made as large in outward appearance as the real fifty pound weight; whereas, in consequence of being hollow, it actually only weighs twenty-five pounds. ”

“ For instance, Mr. Mee measured six stacks of hay 1681⁄2 loads, 250 feet to the load; and Mr. Harding measured the same stacks at 256 loads, 216 feet to the load.
We have already disposed of this question, in page 52, where the principle of weight for weight is clearly defined; and upon this plain principle, it is submitted, Mr. ”

“ If now you either pull or push the empty scale downwards, the beam may be brought into the horizontal position again, and the effort required to bring it into the horizontal position will be the greater, the greater the weight of the body in the opposite scale. An ounce in the one scale is easily raised by the pressure of a finger in the other. A pound requires more effort; ten pounds needs putting out the strength of the arm; to raise fifty pounds involves still more exertion; while a couple of hundredweight will not be stirred by the strongest push or pull upon the empty scale. ”

“ I dare say you are aware that the air we breathe possesses weight. If you weigh a bottle under ordinary circumstances, containing air, and nothing else, and afterwards pump the air from it and weigh it again, you will find that its weight is reduced; it weighs less than when filled with air. Now if I weigh two bodies of different sizes, but of equal weights, in the open air, and then dip balance and all into water, I shall find that they are no longer equiponderant. Each article in weighing loses as much weight as is equivalent to its own bulk of the medium in which it is weighed. ”

“ A pair of ordinary weighing scales also exemplifies the first order of levers. The knife edge on which the beam is balanced serves as a fulcrum; it is placed exactly in the middle of the beam, which we shall suppose to be 10 inches long. If we place a 1-lb. weight in one scale to represent the resistance to be overcome, the weight will be lifted the moment that a pound of sugar has been placed in the opposite scale—the sugar thus representing the power. ”

“ This consequence is seen more clearly and exactly by the following table. The mean weight of man when the organization is complete being sixty-three kilogrammes sixty-seven decimetres, at the time of birth he has yet to gain sixty kilogrammes forty-seven decimetres. ”

“ Weight has been defined as the measure of the earth's attraction. A body weighing one pound attracts the earth and is attracted by it with a force of one pound, but the same body at the sun's surface would attract the mass of the sun with a force of twenty-seven pounds, since its weight has been increased twenty-seven times by the sun's attraction. ”

“ The great pound is just two small pounds; they call the great weight by the name of beasemar, and the small they call the skallawaight. With this small weight they weigh their silver coins, of which the Emperor hath commanded to put to every small pound three rubbles of silver; and with the same weight they weigh all grocery wares, and almost all other wares, which come into the land, except those which they weigh by the pode, as hops, salt, iron, lead, tin, and batrie, with divers others. Notwithstanding, they used to weigh batrie more often by the small weight than by the great. ”

“ Here it is evident that if we overbalance the lever by a single grain, so as to cause the long arm with its power to fall down while the short one with its weight rises up, then the long arm will fall three inches for every inch through which the short arm rises; and hence, to make up for this, a single kilogramme on the long arm will balance three kilogrammes on the short one, or the power will be to the weight as one is to three. ”

“ Joule’s methods of making this determination, we may point out that if a weight be raised a certain height, the work which is done in raising it will be given out by the weight in its descent. If you carry a 1 lb. weight to the top of the London Monument, which is 200 ft. high, you perform 200 units of work. When the weight is at the top, the work is not lost; for let the weight be attached to a cord passing over a pulley, and it will, as it descends, draw up to the top another 1 lb. ”

“ It is used for the purpose of weighing bullion, which is purchased in this department. Gold is brought in in bars of about eight inches long, three wide, and one inch thick. A bar of gold of these dimensions will weigh about two hundred ounces, and is worth, if pure, about eight hundred pounds. Each bar when brought in is accompanied by a memorandum of its weight. The question of quality is determined by the process of assaying; the weight is checked by means of the weighing-machine we have referred to. ”