In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades writes:
|
| If you drop a pound weight (weighed in air) the distance of one foot, it
| will dissipate one foot pound of energy when it comes to rest.

That is a foot-pound(weight), not moving a pound mass a distance
of a foot!

| I would have no difficulty measuring it at home, in any of several
| different ways,
|
| Well, I wouldn't be quite so sanguine, unless I had access to a lot more
| bits and bobs than I do.

Boggle. Hang a wooden ball of known weight on the end of a string,
shoot the pellet into it, and measure how far it swings; that gives
you the momentum. Align the barrel with a spirit level, and measure
the dopy of height with distance; that gives you the velocity. The
mass can be measured with kitchen scales, and you can correct well
enough for air resistance (in the latter case, the former doesn't
need it) using 120 MPH as the terminal velocity of a tumbling human.
I could probably think of several other methods if I put my mind to
it, but those should do as a start.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.