TY - JOUR
T1 - Pounds, Kilograms, Newtons, and Units of Force
AU - Duell, P. Barton
AU - Rubin, Emanuel
PY - 1989/10/26
Y1 - 1989/10/26
N2 - To the Editor: A recurrent problem in the medical literature is the incorrect choice of units to express force or tension. This error is pervasive and is found in textbooks of medicine and physiology as well as in two recent articles in the Journal,1,2 Urbano-Marquez and colleagues mistakenly expressed strength and force in kilograms, and Lüscher et al. incorrectly reported tension in grams. Although the use of units of mass to express a magnitude of force may be conceptually satisfying, it is scientifically incorrect. The confusion about these units appears to arise from the commonly used formula for converting…
AB - To the Editor: A recurrent problem in the medical literature is the incorrect choice of units to express force or tension. This error is pervasive and is found in textbooks of medicine and physiology as well as in two recent articles in the Journal,1,2 Urbano-Marquez and colleagues mistakenly expressed strength and force in kilograms, and Lüscher et al. incorrectly reported tension in grams. Although the use of units of mass to express a magnitude of force may be conceptually satisfying, it is scientifically incorrect. The confusion about these units appears to arise from the commonly used formula for converting…
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U2 - 10.1056/NEJM198910263211719
DO - 10.1056/NEJM198910263211719
M3 - Letter
C2 - 2797085
AN - SCOPUS:0024979181
SN - 0028-4793
VL - 321
SP - 1200
JO - New England Journal of Medicine
JF - New England Journal of Medicine
IS - 17
ER -