Is there an easy way to describe the force of a foot pounds?

Question

other than the common definition of a force of one pound acting from a distance of one foot

Answer 1

First of all, pounds is a measurement of force. Foot-pounds usually refers to torque or energy. I think you mean the work done by one pound of force acting over one foot. In which case you'd have 1 ft-lb which is equivalent to 0.324048267 calories. Not very much...

Answer 2

A foot-pound is Not a force, it is an amount of energy. A "pound" Is a force caused by gravity. All "weight" is the force of gravity acting on a mass. If you were to move a force through a distance, you would need to use Energy. The greater the distance - or - the greater the force, the more energy is required. So, when you lift the force of one pound up a distance of one foot, you've used one foot-pound of energy. If you were to lift a one pound weight (meaning one pound of force) from the floor up to a 4 foot high table, you'd use four foot-pounds of energy. If that one pound weight then fell back to the floor, it would return those 4 foot-pounds of energy when it hit the floor in the form of a big BANG and maybe a dent in the floor!
Remember that energy (also called "work") is the product of force times the distance it is moved through.

Answer 3

The amount of >work< is the force times the distance the object is moved. The unit of work is the >foot-pound<. The work done to lift a 2-pound book to a height of 3 feet is 6 foot-pounds (2 x 3 = 6). The unit of work in the metric system is the joule. One joule equals 0.7 foot-pounds.

Answer 4

A foot pound is not a force.It's a unit of work... One pound of force applied through one foot of distance.

Answer 5

Impact, pounds of impact, pounds at point of impact.
Maybe?