Poll

heavy

the steel
37 (57.8%)
the feathers
27 (42.2%)

Total Members Voted: 64

Author Topic: what's a heavier? A kilogram of steel or a kilogram of feathers  (Read 6953 times)


but he has a kilo of both

one would be more massive than the other, at least

yeah

but

steel's heavier...


The joke is better done with the unit "pound" because it is less likely to make the person think about the unit. Saying "What's heavier a kilogram of.." to an American is instantly going to make them think about how much the first thing weighs because it isn't immediately known how heavy a kilogram is compared to a pound.
I've usually heard it as "what's heavier, a tonne of bricks, or a tonne of feathers". The imagery has an impact on what you would think. Everyone can imagine a tonne of bricks as being a large heavy pile.
A tonne of feathers though, is more difficult to imagine, as you've never really seen a massive pile of feathers before.

Obviously it depends on what planet the kilo of steel, or feathers are on.
A kilo of feathers on Earth is heavier than a kilo of steel on Mars.

kilogram of steel

edit - i just found out the guy who made limmy's show now streams video games, where the "what's heavier" joke came from
« Last Edit: April 27, 2016, 02:54:40 PM by Refticus »

The joke is better done with the unit "pound" because it is less likely to make the person think about the unit. Saying "What's heavier a kilogram of.." to an American is instantly going to make them think about how much the first thing weighs because it isn't immediately known how heavy a kilogram is compared to a pound.
it's from a skit in a scottish show
but if you said "a pound of steel or a pound of feathers" to someone from the UK, it would depend on which costs less

OT: it's steel, because steel is heavier than feathers.

but a feathers are lighter than wa'ah?
so a kilogram of wa'ah weighs more than a kilogram of feathers


what the forget is a kilogram? i'm an american


The joke is better done with the unit "pound" because it is less likely to make the person think about the unit. Saying "What's heavier a kilogram of.." to an American is instantly going to make them think about how much the first thing weighs because it isn't immediately known how heavy a kilogram is compared to a pound.
That's a pointless comparison, though.  If you are aware that it is a weight unit in the first place, then there's no comparison to be made.  What's heavier: A cental of dust or a cental of iron?  Doesn't matter, because they're both the same unit.

Funfact: A cental is equal to 1/100th of a pound.

neither of those options are correct, they equally weigh the same.

neither of those options are correct, they equally weigh the same.
yeah but
steel's heavier than feathers

neither of those options are correct, they equally weigh the same.
but steel is heavier than feathers

Jokes aside, a kilogram of steel (if accounted for by its mass and not its weight) really does weigh more than a kilogram of feathers (if accounted for by its mass and not its weight).

Weighing =/= having mass.


And this popular trick of saying they weigh the same bothers me to no end; because the premices of the trick does not differentiates weighing and having masss; The trick says kilograms, which is what is used to measure mass; when it will try to equate forces (measured in Newtons).

You would think it does not matter, but it does.
Say you take an amount of steel by measuring how difficult it is to move it. You attach it to a spring horizontally and measure the period taken for the spring to move back and forth the steel. Same for taking an amount of feathers.
Now, you put them both vertically, and weigh them: you measure the forces they apply to some device. Now the forces are:
1) the gravitation of earth,

and
2) Archimedes' principle: both the steel and feathers take some place in our atmosphere, and thus are subject to forces equal to the mass of the air they displace.

The feathers are less dense than steel, and take more space. And are more subject to Archimedes' principle. Thus they will experience less force towards earth, and they will weigh less.
How much less? This less:
( (1 kg) / (density of feathers) - (1 kg) / (density of steel) ) * (density of air)
or 31.72g, which is not even negligible.

So this trick is outright untrue and dishonest(saying kg instead of Newtons), and the shame should 100% be on the trickster.
disclaimer:found this on reddit
« Last Edit: April 27, 2016, 05:21:49 PM by Biostorm »

yeah but the question is accounted for by it's weight