Feathers, gold and puns, or not?
The old riddle goes: What weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? Some say gold because it is heavier. Others say they both weigh one pound, so they weigh the same. Both are wrong. How can it be? Tradition. Gold is not weighed in the ordinary scales. Gold is weighed in the Troy measuring system. An ounce of gold is not the same as the regular ounce (actually called an avoirdupois ounce).
The best way to understand this is to convert them both into a unified system. A gram or ounce is a standard metric unit of mass. An avoirdupois ounce is converted to approximately 28.34 grams. Troy ounce is approximately 31.1. You say, "Aha! Gold weighs more, so a pound of gold weighs more than a pound of feathers." Unfortunately, there is one more piece of the puzzle. We all know that 16 ounces equals one pound. True in the avoirdupois system, but not in the troy. In the Troy system, only 12 ounces equals one pound. So a pound of feathers weighs about 453.59 grams and a pound of gold weighs about 373.24 grams. So a pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold.
Some say gold because it is heavier. Others say they both weigh one pound, so they weigh the same. Both are wrong.
There's more trivia about gold weights. The Troy system was traditionally used to measure the weight of fabrics, precious metals and gemstones. The name comes from the French city of Troyes. The precious metals (gold, silver and platinum) all use the Troy system. One troy ounce is 20 pennyweights. The pennyweight was the weight of a silver penny in medieval England. When pennies were introduced to England in the 8th century, their original weight is believed to have been 24 grains. This was gradually reduced, in at least thirteen stages, until it reached 7.27 grains in 1816. 24 grains = 1 pennyweights and 20 pennyweights = 1 troy ounce.
More trivia if you want to read on. "The grain is an ancient unit originally based on the weight of a grain of wheat. The grain is the smallest unit of weight in the avoirdupois, troy, and apothecary systems. Surprisingly, it is identical in all three systems." 4 grains = 1 carat; 24 grains = 1 cent weight; 480 grains = 1 troy ounce; 15,432 grains = 1 gram.
"Although we stated above that the grain weighed the same in all three of the above systems, there were at least two different grains. The Troy system used the assumed weight of the barley grain, while the wheat grain was also used as the weight standard. There were three grains barley to four grains of wheat.”
That's enough trivia for now. If you wanted to update the old riddle, you could say: which weighs more, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of gold?
FJUCategories:Jewelry Metals
