• JustAnotherRando@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s just a pun. They’re both units of mass, hence there would be mass confusion.

    It doesn’t work with the pun, but the more confusing part for people would probably be the fact that pounds are used for both mass and force, but in SI, the units are different (kilograms for mass vs newtons for force), though that doesn’t really matter for most people.

    • The Stoned Hacker@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pounds aren’t used for mass. They’re explicitly a measure of weight. It’s just almost always in the context of earth’s gravity so the approximation to mass can easily be made.

          • JustAnotherRando@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Again, that’s incorrect. Pounds (Lbs) are the US measurement for mass. Feel free to provide a source to the contrary. I specified pounds mass vs pounds force because in an engineering space, it’s worthwhile to be specific, but the Pound (lb) is all that is specified in any documentation as the unit for mass in the US system.