Mass
There is some confusion about the actual mass of the Willamette meteorite due difference between metric tons and short tons, often both referred simply as tons. The result is that several sources report different weights ranging from 15,500 kg (15.5 tonnes) to 12,700 kg. The official American Museum of Natural History website also reports both "15.5 tons" and "14 tons". However 15,500 kg are likely 15.5 short tons converted as metric tons and 12,700 kg are likely 14 metric tons converted as short tons. Moreover in 1906 the American Museum of Natural History itself stated that the weight of the Willamette meteorite was at least 31,200 pounds, or about 15.6 tons. After these considerations it is reasonable to guess that the real weight of the meteorite is about 14150 kg = 15.6 short tons = 14.15 tonnes.
Read more about this topic: Willamette Meteorite
Famous quotes containing the word mass:
“There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees. Our globe seen by God is a transparent law, not a mass of facts. The law dissolves the fact and holds it fluid.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)
“... the mass migrations now habitual in our nation are disastrous to the family and to the formation of individual character. It is impossible to create a stable society if something like a third of our people are constantly moving about. We cannot grow fine human beings, any more than we can grow fine trees, if they are constantly torn up by the roots and transplanted ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)