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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I liked this idea- mass is how resistant something is to a change in motion. The more mass, the effort it takes to move it/ change its motion once in motion. So in space, you are next to…. Idk the space station free floating, both of you not moving. If you push against it, it doesn’t move , but instead you push off of it and you accelerate away from it.
But it’s in space! It’s weightless! Yup, but it has more mass than you. It’s more resistant to change in motion (it’s staying still, so to move it takes energy) than you are, so you move rather than the space station.
Weight is based off of mass and gravity. A constant force is being applied to an object in an downward (to the viewer) position- this force is gravity. It is uniformly applied to everything with mass at a specific distance from the source, so with different values of gravity ( bigger and bigger planets and such) the weight increases even thought the mass does not. Weight now describes the amount of force required to lift something with a particular mass away from ground.
I am noooot a physicist and I could be wrong, but this was the best way a laymen like me could describe the difference
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