User:Eleotheran

I propose that the opening of this article be adjusted to recognize that a pound measures weight: "The pound is the name of units of weight in the imperial, United States customary, and other systems of measurement.  Many definitions have been used, but the most common one today is is "avoirdupois pound," which is legally defined in the U.S. as the weight of 0.453 592 37 kilograms of mass.

Owing to the historical conflation of mass and weight, it is common to treat the pound as merely an archaic unit largely replaced by the kilogram or newton, but the matter is one of heated (albeit esoteric) debate; weight and mass are similar but not necessarily identical concepts.

The unit of pound is the modern form of the Latin name for a weight used on a scale, libra pondo [italics] (hence the abbreviation "lb")."

There is dispute as to what "weight" is or even whether it exists in any scientifically valid sense, but is there any dispute that pounds measure it, whatever it is? Let's keep the link to the conflation of weight and mass, and tuck away the disputes about it there--not here.

The US statute appears to say "weight of precisely...kilograms," which seems to conflate weight and mass, but it doesn't. Whatever "weight" is, mass seems to have it--at least in the US Congress. The word "precisely" refers to accuracy, not lexological equivalence.

Scientific purists may object to any use of a non-SI concept, but in an article about a non-SI unit, I don't see how an encyclopedia has much choice. Fundamenalist Christians don't much like the article about Evolution either. Whether or not weight or evolution have any claims on "reality," they are concepts that folks need to know about and are likely to look up in Wikipedia. Are we in the authority business? If we keep "pounds," "weight," and "evolution" out of Wiki, do readers think that the omission means such things aren't real? Should they? I should check, but I'm no good at that split-screen stuff. Don't we have an article on Shangri La? Should we?

Eleotheran (talk) 02:54, 26 May 2012 (UTC)