Is 'lb per ft' a Unit of Force or Work? Confirm & Explain Here

[dangish]

So in this engineering course I do at my university called Statics, we often use a unit of lb per ft as a unit of force when calculating moments.

However, I was just watching an episode of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon said something about a common mistake being when people use lb per ft as a unit of force and that it's rather a unit of work.

Can anyone confirm this and explain the reasoning behind it?

 

[vela]

You're both wrong.

The unit lb per ft is for a distributed load. It's a force per unit length, not simply a force.

Work is a force multiplied by a displacement, so its units are ft-lb, not lb/ft.

 

[dangish]

ya I didnt mean lb/ft i meant to multiply them

so why would he say it was a unit of work, there must be some reason

 

[Mark44]

I agree with vela - the unit of work in the English system is lb-ft. Could it be that you misheard the speaker?

 

[vela]

so why would he say it was a unit of work, there must be some reason

What is the "it" you are referring to? ft-lb?

 

[dangish]

Nope its in the season finale of season 1, the only connection I can make is that work = force*distance which could also be a ft*lb

 

[dangish]

yes the it was referring to a ft-lb

 

[dangish]

Im not agreeing nor disagreeing with either of you, I was just curious as to what the guy on the show meant haha

 

[vela]

Nope its in the season finale of season 1, the only connection I can make is that work = force*distance which could also be a ft*lb

That's pretty much it.