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
Weight is a force and the English system uses a force unit to measure it; technically the English system measure of mass is the “slug.” Common metric system just used th e mass unit as also for weight. Force units in metric are basically used by scientists and engineers and the mks and cgs variant systems use compeltley differnet units for force. It’s really just a convention on both sides.
Latest Answers