How do you figure out how many pounds are in a bushel?

Answer 1

Refer to a matter density table or fill a bushel container & then weigh it.

===Weight versus volumeA recurring problem -- an incessant, nagging, chronic one -- is the confusion people have with weight and volume. They are NOT the same. Weight is an indirect measure of mass, whereas volume is an direct measure of space.

Think of it this way: a pound of feathers and a pound of rocks have the same weight (which means they have the same mass, since weight is a function of mass, and they therefore represent the same amount of matter -- stuff!) But they do not occupy the same volume. Clearly, a pound of feathers will take up way more space than a pound of rocks.

Or think of it THIS way: If you have a shoe box filled with feathers and an identical shoe box filled with rocks, which will weigh more? Clearly, the box of rocks. Both the feathers and the rocks occupy the same volume -- a shoe box -- but the box of rocks has greater mass and, hence, greater weight.

Which brings us -- tada! -- to a bushel. A bushel is a unit of volume, just like a shoe box is. If you have a bushel of feathers, it will weigh less than a bushel of rocks -- or a bushel of corn, or a bushel of buckwheat, or a bushel of apples. In other words, you are going to have to find a table that shows how much a bushel of whatever it is you have weighs, because a bushel of each substance will weigh something different.