Technically, pounds are the units for weight, while for mass, you should be using “Slug”. But no one is using that anymore so it became the norm to confuse the two.

I usually try to use SI units (Kilograms and Newton) because in physics it’s much easier to handle them, but even if your units are imperial, the idea is that you want to be leaner — that is, you want to lose the mass of fat and replace it with mass of muscle. That would affect your weight, but weight loss isn’t your actual goal.

And thank you very much for the podcast compliment – I had a lot of fun, I LOVE the Skeptic Zone!

Wouldnt the terminology then be correct? If I say I want to “lose 10 pounds”, am I not attempting to lose weight? I understand that people should really say “I want to remove mass”

Shouldnt the problem be “where where you when you lost the weight? Maybe I can help you find it.”

Im probably all wrong…thoughts?

(btw, caught you on the skeptic zone podcast, good stuff!)

Balance scales are not really “measuring” per say, they’re comparing. You are looking for a “counter-mass” that balances out the mass you put on the scale, so no matter what the gravity in your environment is, all objects will exert the same force proportional to their mass.

But a spring scale is actually measuring the amount the spring has contracted by a certain object on it, so it is used to directly measure the force that the object exerts.

Great point, thank you

~moo