Conceptually I understand that mass is a measure of the amount of stuff present in an object, while weight is a measure of the force of gravity applied to that object. An object of a given mass will have a bigger weight on Earth than on the moon because Earth’s gravity is stronger. But… mass is determined by weighing an object on a scale. And there is a simple mathematical conversion between grams (mass) and pounds (weight), implying that they’re just different units for the same concept. So what gives? (Also this is a question that applies to so many fields, I had no idea which flair to apply.)
In: 53
Mass is *not* measured by weighing it on a scale. Mass is measured with a “balance”. That means it is measured against some item of known mass. The balance checks to see how much of the known item it takes to counteract the effect of gravity on the thing you’re measuring.
Since it’s two items being compared, we know gravity will affect each of them the same if there is the same amount of stuff in each one, so the actual strength of gravity doesn’t matter.
Latest Answers