SC - question about period wededings

[Michael Macchione]

On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Phil & Susan Troy wrote:

> Of course, I agree, that's simple. What I'm concerned with is the
> fact that something I grew up knowing (that a cup of water weighs
> half a pound) may not be true. Next thing people will be telling me
> there's no such thing as Santa Claus, or the earth is round, or some
> silly thing like that.

Of course the earth isn't round; it's slightly flattened, and has
several "bumps" and pits here and there. And while Santa Claus does
exist he's been arrested by the MIB, for running a matter transformer in
a restricted zone. And Elvis isn't dead, he just went home.

Regarding water. 

As I have been led to understand one US pint is 473.18 ml. Some
unsubstanciated rumors also claims that one pound is 453.59 g. This
would indicate that for the statement "a pint of water have a mass one
pound" to be true the density of water must be 0.9586 g/ml. Since I am
currently working in a rather deprived environment (*neighter* the CRC
handbook *nor* the Merck Index is available) I can't verify my memory,
but this looks awfully low, even if the cannonical 1 g/ml is an
approximation. A web-search indicates that, at 20 C/68 F, it is 0.99823
g/ml, which does sound about right.

Using this value we would then get that one pint of water would have a
mass of 472.3 g (16.66 oz). The difference is approximately 4 %, which
is probably rather insignificant for most everyday cooking purposes. But
yes, they lied to to you, Adamantius. It would be perfectly
understandable if you took a rifle up into a nearby watertower in order
to make the world understand the trauma that this has caused you. Make
sure to bring a good protective vest, or the SWATs will spoil your fun
before you've made them understand the full scope of your feelings.

> discrepancy at that), I'm curious as to how I got to be the age I am
> (I'm twelve, of course) without knowing about this.

Lack of a good scientific education. When I was your age we were doing
tensor calculus with a sliderule. Todays youngsters have it way to easy.
Grumph.

> Wait! I've got it! Some government agencies maintain laboratories
> deep underground to protect them from nuclear attack. Maybe the cup
> of water was weighed in one so deep that its greater proximity to
> the earth's core caused it to weigh more, just as it might weigh
> less, say, at the top of Mount Everest?

Hold on! You're talking about weight, not mass. What is your local
gravity? If it is only 9.42 m/s^2 then your mother did _not_ lie to you,
and you can out that rifle down. Is the gravity in NY only 96 % of the
standard value?

And no I did not expect you (or anyone else) to be very interested, I
was just bored waithing for a script to run. 

/UlfR

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                   parlei(at)algonet.se
http://www.algonet.se/~parlei 
People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die.
		-- Jim Davidsson

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