What does a "pound of thrust" mean?
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[comment removed: my statements were based on flubbed arithmetic]
I can't really provide a source to discredit Marshal Brain, other than to recommend a basic college physics course.
Here is a page from NASA with an accurate description of thrust:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thrust1.html
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thrsteq.html
It may seem like Mr. Brain has an impressive resume, but his background is in electrical engineering and computer science, so he doesn't seem to have experience in this field.
And the idea that he would have to research this article is silly, because any engineer should be able to answer this question without doing research. I am guessing he writes a lot of articles for this website and simply got confused.
Unless I am just confused by the way he words the article, which is possible because I am human, but then again so is he.
The person who wrote this article is Marshall Brain,
Marshall Brain is the founder of HowStuffWorks. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in computer science from North Carolina State University. Before founding HowStuffWorks, Marshall taught in the computer science department at NCSU and ran a software training and consulting company. Learn more at his site( http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=about-author.htm&url=http://marshallbrain.com/) .
I am guessing given his academic background he researched his article before he printed it on his website.
You can reach him for vitrification at this email address that is posted on his site.
Can you provide a source that backs you up?
I know this is copied from a source, but I don't think this paragraph is very accurate.
For instance:
"A pound of thrust is the amount of thrust it would take to keep a 1-pound object stationary against the force of gravity on Earth"
This statement is just wrong, 1 pound of thrust the force required to accelerate 1 slug of mass by 1ft/sec^2, while the force of gravity is the force required to accelerate one slug of mass by 32.2 ft/sec^2.
Also the part of the answer about baseballs is just completely wrong on so many levels, I would basically advise readers to discount this answer all together.
Again I am not criticizing @thelastscionspeaks, because he found a source that should be valid, however I don't believe that it is.
The idea that he would research what he is writing on is not silly. Most writers research things before they start writing on them. It's part of the pre-writing process.
I was not trying to create a conflict pmacdon1 I was just offering a solution to the question. If anyone wonders what he was thinking when he wrote it they could simply ask him directly. I'm not saying you are right or wrong. You have brought up a point of contention and I think it should be addressed no matter what way it goes.
I did find he wrote a book called How Much Does the Earth Weigh? John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0-7645-6519-2 Which tells me he might have a good grasp on physical sciences and physics. But, that is speculation. The man is also a transhumanist a fact that makes me worry about his moral background... "Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. The movement regards aspects of the human condition, such as disability, suffering, disease, aging, and involuntary death as unnecessary and undesirable. Transhumanists look to biotechnologies and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Dangers, as well as benefits, are also of concern to the transhumanist movement."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
Now let's imagine that the chair (through some kind of crazy magic science thing) started pushing up against your body with 200 lbs. of thrust instead of 100 lbs. You'd be shot right up to the ceiling and you'd probably break your neck, or at least suffer a concussion.
So let's just keep hoping the chair doesn't do that to you.
I bet by now you can guess what kind of people use pounds of thrust as a measurement. You guessed it, Rocket Scientists (and aviation engineers, but Rocket Scientist sounds cooler).
Check out the article in the sources section for a more detailed explanation, but just remember that, basically, in order to lift something off the ground, you have to push up with a number of pounds of thrust larger than the weight (in pounds) of what you're trying to get up in the sky.
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