Thank you all. It is a interesting discussion. Do we teach what is absolutely accurate knowing most students will never even think about using that information, OR, do we give them a "Rule of Thumb" that is not very accurate but they have a much greater chance of remembering and using?

How often are they put in a position of needing to use that information? In a standard Grocery warehouse in North America, the pallets loads are 40wx48lx48h inches and 2000 lbs average weight evenly distributed. Moving a longer load is very rare. But in a manufacturing plant, or car parts, or lumber yard, etc. the odd sized loads can be 20% of the time. Long loads could be an issue every day.

I am not sure there is a right answer. Perhaps the 3rd option of teaching from our friend in Nova Scotia - have the capacity graph (because its not a straight line formula) on every forklift and teach the student how to read that properly.