Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of force in the foot-pound-second system of measurement, equal to the force required to accelerate a standard one-pound mass one foot per second per second (approximately 0.138 newton).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name proposed by Prof. James Thomson for the British kinetic unit of force—the force which, acting for one second upon a mass of one pound, gives it a velocity of one foot per second: g poundals (g being the acceleration of gravity at a given place) are equal to the action of gravity upon (that is, to the weight of) one pound; one poundal = 13,825 dynes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physics & Mech.) A unit of force based upon the pound, foot, and second, being the force which, acting on a pound avoirdupois for one second, causes it to acquire by the of that time a velocity of one foot per second. It is about equal to the weight of half an ounce, and is 13,825 dynes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dated (physics) A unit equal to the force needed to accelerate a mass of one pound at a rate of one foot per second per second.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a unit of force equal to the force that imparts an acceleration of 1 foot/sec/sec to a mass of 1 pound; equal to 0.1382 newtons

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[pound + -al (as in quintal).]

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