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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>there is a simple mathematical conversion between grams (mass) and pounds (weight), implying that they’re just different units for the same concept.
Yes, but no. There’s two different pound units, there’s pound (mass) and pound (weight). You can do calculations to get from grams (mass) to pounds (mass) then to pounds (weight), but that doesn’t mean that mass and weight are the same.
Summarily, you can use a distance (miles) to calculate your speed (mph) , but that doesn’t mean that distance and speed are the same thing. They are two different units that describe different things.
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