A Heavy Thing

A Heavy Thing

I remember one time at school, when a teacher asked, What is heavier, 1000 kilos of cotton or 1000 kilos of iron?

Looks like a really easy question, being that is actually the same weight, but it was very interesting to hear the discussion, on how some students argued that cotton being soft, and iron being a hard heavy metal, well, 1000 kilos of cotton should be lighter than the 1000 kilos of iron. Interesting how perception of heavy changed with the perception of material.

Like on the cartoons, when the characters easily lift something that says weight too little then someone else adds a few zeros, and suddenly is the heaviest thing ever.

why do I say this, well I don't know, maybe it was the result of the photo, In reality I just wanted to be able to show under the balloons, but in it looks more like if I was trying to hold under the weight of them. A false perception of weight. Like the other two examples.

But then I remember, weight is a relative thing, since it depends on gravity, since things weight different at different heights above sea level I don't remember if less or more. So maybe 1000 kilos of cotton could weight more or less than 1000 kilos of iron.

Kisses
Jessica

Ps, by the way, if some science-speak-person says "but kilo is a mass measure, the actual weight unit is Newtons", better take those fancy science words away.