For crying out loud!

[TenMetrePeter]

See... Now I've often wondered about this.... I wonder if. FPE as an abbreviation of "Foot Pound Energy" is in actual fact correct. Just taken this from a site on the net:

"Lb is an abbreviation of the Latin word libra. The primary meaning of libra was balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also stood for the ancient Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.”

The operative word being "pound" in weight... Now although "libra Pondo" or "libra" itself is written as "lb" and "lbs" being plural, I don't see saying foot pounds energy "fpe" as being wrong.... Just different. Infact "fpe" is closer I think as although we call pounds lbs, lbs is actually an abbreviation for libra which is only half the wording.
Interesting stuff a?

The unit of energy is expressed as a force of 1 pound moving 1 foot and the unit is therefore feet multiplied by pounds.
That is "foot pounds" with or without a space
abbreviated to ft lb or ftlb
Same as a times b is "a b" or "ab"
No hyphen, and definitely no forward slash ft/lb which is feet divided by pounds.

fpe is just plain bxllxcks, abbreviating an abbreviation .

edit: Just to be even more pedantic 12 ftlb is a measure of energy and not power. (nobody on this thread made that mistake but plenty of learned sites have)
Power is the rate of producing or using energy eg ftlb/h so to double the power of a rifle just shoot twice as many pellets per hour!