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.)
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Mass is how much stuff something is made up of. Weight is how gravity affects that mass in proportion to the gravity it is being effected by. So say something is made of a bunch of atoms or particles or whatever, that’s the mass. How much that object weighs depends on local gravity’s affect on that mass. The object will always have the same mass whether it’s in space or on earth, but the gravity around it will change the “local” weight of the object.
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