Aluminium or aluminum

[Benm]

I suppose its a measure of both then... you can buy a pound of sugar where you clearly mean mass, or have a pound of force where you'd mean the gravitational pull on that pound under standard conditions.

Then again, even with metrics we still mess these things up, quoting force in kilograms and such (which sort of makes sense if you are talking about a crane lifting something).

 

[Bearded_Galaxy]

If I wanted a pound of sugar, yes, what I mean is the total mass of sugar that would weigh one pound. However, 200 years ago, not many could conceive of mass as easily as they could conceive of the force of gravity. So they would ask for one pound of sugar. In such situations, they clearly meant one pound, not even thinking about mass. Your thinking isn't wrong, you're making an unnecessary jump.

 

[Crazy Jay]

One things for sure... with all of that sugar, we're all going to get diabetes

 

[Benm]

Yes, but if we just moved to the moon, we'd instantly lose 5/6th of our weight, so at least obesity will be solved

 

[Crazy Jay]

Yes, but if we just moved to the moon, we'd instantly lose 5/6th of our weight, so at least obesity will be solved

Haha lets go tell that to all the Richard Simmon lovers out there

 

[Bearded_Galaxy]

But to eat the same weight of food, we'd then have to eat 6 times what we're eating now, which cause us all to quickly weigh as much as w weighed here. And if there were enough of us, we could even make a second moon, perhaps throw off earth's orbit and see what happens...But by now, we're WAY of subject...

 

[Benm]

.. way...

If people think the moon is made of cheese, its always entertaining... but a moon made of fat people?

 

[Bearded_Galaxy]

So, anyway...Aluminum, because it's a .com website, not .co.uk or any other country that mispronounces the word haha, no offense...well, not much offense...maybe a little...whatever.

 

[Ivan]

In my agenda on the periodic table its spelled Aluminum.

 

[Arayan]

I think is better: "aluminium" because in Italy we said: "alluminio" and italian language has a direct latin derivation. then I think that aluminium is also in conforming with the other elements: potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and so on...

 

[Byrnz93]

Aluminium for sure. You Americans are always misspelling stuff lol

 

[Bearded_Galaxy]

Ameicans can't spell, Brits can't pronounce, and the French can't do either, lol. The Fench language barely makes more sense than English, which is the most complicated languge to learn as a second language.

 

[Volfram]

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that back in the 70s(that's 1770s), the citizens of the newly-formed United States decided to do a lot of things differently from Britain just to be different, so it's probably just as well we aren't discussing all this in Deutsch like almost happened... though at least then it'd be "aluminium" both ways.

Who besides Canadia calls it "Zed," I wonder, though the British do one thing backwards for sure: you loonies drive on the wrong side of the road!

which is to say... Mornington Crescent. I WIN!

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I've always attributed the Americanized spelling of Alumin(i)um to Charles Martin Hall, and his method of producing the element inexpensively. Prior to that, Alumin(i)um was just an expensive novelty. It was only when it was cheaply available that the element became widespread in use, and his spelling of the element without the "i" became the popular spelling here.

A lot of words and such in the US are the byproduct of a pragmatic approach to standards. It's like the use of the metric system in the US: the country has been officially "metric" since 1866, but without the serious need to use it with many other countries, it was never seriously used. It might be different now, but still not a huge deal. The same way with "Aluminum": the shortened spelling became popular, and so it took hold, no matter how other countries spell it.