mass vs weight

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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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Anonymous 0 Comments

Just wanted to clarify on the last part — there are two “pound” units in the English system. In engineering you’d refer to the lbf (pound force) when expressing a force and the lbm (pound mass) when expressing a mass. When converting from grams to pounds you’re really converting to pound mass.

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