Gravitational mass and inertial mass

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I get **ΣF = m*a** and gravity pull is **m*g**

But I was once told that there is no reason that the mass in both cases are the same. However, they happen to be according to our most precise measurement. Why wouldn’t they be the same? Can anything have different mass in regard of the context?

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Look at it that way:

Inertial mass is how much an object resists to a force (any force) trying to change its velocity.

Charge is how much an object affects other charged objects via electromagnetic forces.

Gravitational mass is how much an object affects other massive objects via gravitational forces.

Charge is not related to inertial mass. Why would gravitational mass be related to inertial mass (beyond the fact that they use the same unit)?

Of course, experimentally, we ended up noticing that both masses have the same value for every object and deeper understanding of gravity (GR) actually removed that duality altogether.

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