English vs. SI units??

Question

I am unfamiliar with English units. What is the relationship between pounds-mass and pounds-force?

If, say, you were to calculate a force needed to accelerate a tank or something and the weight (pounds-force) was known, you would simply divide by the gravity acceleration (32.2 ft/s^2) to know the pounds-mass?

I would like to know because American engineers use English units. But who cares why I need to know; I asked a question and if you can't answer, please refrain from being useless.

Answer 1

As was already said, 1 lb-F = 1 lb-m x 32.17 ft/s^2

Welcome to the wonderful world of English units! We should really be calling them American units now, but that's another story. Funny thing about American physics teachers, they insist on teaching us in metric. Then we leave school and try to apply stuff to to the real world but all we find are feet, pounds, BTU's instead of the meters, kilograms, and Joules we were taught about. :-)

Answer 2

Yes, you have it right, 1 lb-force/1lb-mass = 32.174 ft/s^2. The pound is properly a unit of force. There is also a seldom-used mass unit called the slug, such that a force of 1 pound causes an acceleration of 1 ft/s^2. 1 slug = 32.174 lb-mass.

Answer 3

why would you want to learn the engligh way of doing things? it is just confusing and doesn't work in the real world anymore. There are extra steps you have to take to deal with mass vs weight, but it just isn't worth it when there is a system that already takes care of all that.

Answer 4

Yes, you're correct. F=mg