It's that darn metric system again.
Joule (energy or work) = applied force of one Newton moving one meter
Newtons (force) = force required to accelerate 1 kilogram one meter
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As far as I'm concerned when you need to know what it takes to put a six foot man six feet under, foot-pounds just seems to make a lot more sense.
Yeah, but our troops rarely get to do that. Usually, their enemy is a 2 metre, 80 kg man.