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?

Question

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

Answer 1

Mass is measured in grams, and for everyday things so is weight, but wieght’s official unit is actually newtons (N). We use grams instead of newtons because before Newton the difference between weight and mass didn’t really “exist” as the *concept* of inertia didn’t exist, and we have just kinda stuck with it.