Abstract
WILL, you allow me a few words in explanation of a sentence in my last letter, which has strangely been misunderstood by Prof. Everett. In defending the system which makes the standard pound a unit of force on the ground that although not the most philosophical, it simplifies the conception of ma s which is always difficult for beginners, I said, “The assumption of a hypothetical force of gravity not dependent on latitude, seems to stand on the same footing as the employment of a mean solar day,” meaning, of course, that just as we assume (for convenience) that a solar day is the same length at whatever period of the year we take it, so we may assume a mean force of gravity (the actual force of gravity in latitude 45°) which is the same all over the earth. Such an assumption will enable us to explain the unfamiliar notion of mass by the familiar one of weight, and when it does become necessary to take into account the variation in the force of gravity at different points of the earth's surface, the correction is easily made.
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W., W. Measurement of Mass. Nature 3, 369 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/003369d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003369d0
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