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Flamant's use of mass and weight

Flamant's use of mass and weight

Flamant's use of mass and weight

(OP)
I apologize for the stupid question, but I've consulted teachers and found their answers unsatisfactory. Professor E.Brune, in the XIX century, delivered a course on l'École des beaux-arts on construction, and this course became a book with an introduction on strength of materials delivered by A.Flamant (the famous engineer of Palaiseau's polytechnique). In that introduction Flamant uses some terms which I found already in other books, but couldn't understand why is used that way. We know stress is force per unit surface
σ=F/S
expressed in newtons per meters square (or cubic meters, if we analyse volumes). However, in expressing the pression per meters square correspondent to the rupture of bronze, he says it is 20 to 25000000 kilograms per meters square. Why does he uses kilograms instead of force? In saying 25000000kg does he mean the mass that we should multiply by 9,8 in order to attain the pressure value?

Any help is appreciated. Have a nice day.

P.S.: In the image, the value mencioned can be found in the fourth colum Pression par mètre carré correspondant a la rupture.

RE: Flamant's use of mass and weight

Use of kg force was quite common in engineering in mainland Europe until quite recently. It is the gravitational force on a mass of 1 kg.

It is of course also what English speaking non-engineers everywhere usually mean when they talk about 1 kg (since they are more likely to be concerned with weight than mass).

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

RE: Flamant's use of mass and weight

I know in the last few years, I've seen mill test certificates that showed stresses as kgf/cm^2, so I don't know that it's gone away quite yet.

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