Mass explanation: I’ve always been told that mass was not the same as weight, and that grams are the metric unit of mass. But grams are a measurement of weight, so am I stupid, was it was explained to me wrong, or is science just not make sense?
In: 140
Grams are a measurement of mass, not weight. The measurements of weight are pounds or newtons. Technically, people shouldn’t be using grams to describe the weight of things. But practically speaking, it works as a measurement of weight since when you’re on earth, 1g of mass will always have a weight of 0.002lb. So people will know how much weight you’re talking about. But if you were to go to the moon, 1 gram of mass will weigh much less due to there being less gravity on the moon (0.0003lb), but it will still have 1g of mass.
Basically mass and weight are fundamentally different properties. Mass is a property of things that describes how difficult it is to move, and it doesn’t change no matter where that thing is. Weight is the force of gravity something exerts, and it is dependent on where you are. On the moon your weight is very small, on earth it’s bigger, on the sun it’s even bigger than that. But no matter where you are, your mass will always be the same.
Latest Answers