If i am 200 lbs, and i lost 10 lbs, would i have the same mass when i am 190 lbs as when i was 200 lbs?

Question

Basically my question is asking if you lose mass as you lose weight. I beleive it is true. My 8th grade science teacher told us that if he weighed 200 lbs and lost 10 lbs he would have the same mass. Which i beleive is false. He refused to beleive he was wrong. I would just like to see what every one else thinks...please anwser this!!!!!

Answer 1

I know the answer.

If he was standing in the same spot and I cut off you teacher's leg he would have lost ten pounds and the equivilant mass.

However if he was in a rocket moving at a constant speed away from the earth he could rise to an altitude where the gravitational attraction between him and the earth was 10 lbs less but he would have lost no mass.

Answer 2

No. Your mass and weight would both be 190 lbs (assuming you were still on planet earth).

Mass is a measurement of matter. Weight is determined by gravitational pull. Walking around on Earth, these are pretty much the same because the Earth's graviation pull is (pretty much) the same wherever you.

If you went to the moon, however, you would weight less. But there wouldn't be less of you--you'd still be made up of the same amount of matter. This is the difference between weight and mass.

So assuming a constant gravitational pull, you'll lose the same mass as weight.

Answer 3

No you would not have the same mass unless you cheated and found a place with low gravity (parabolic plane dive).. You could get your weight to zero then but you would still have the same mass!

Don't confuse weight and mass, although they both change by 10lbs in your case. You teacher is absolutely wrong. This assumes you lost the weight by dieting and measured your weight in the same way

Answer 4

Depends on how you lose the weight. If you lose the weight because the force of gravity is reduced, then your mass can stay the same. Otherwise (gravity being equal), the reduction in mass and weight must be proportional.

Remember, f=ma. In this case force (weight) can be reduced by either reducing the mass (m) or reducing the gravity (acceleration).

Answer 5

Assuming you are in the same gravitational field
(that is, you didn't lose weight because you went
to moon) then you would NOT have the same mass.
Weight (which is a measurement of a force) = mass * g
where g is the gravitational acceleration. If g doesn't
change and weight does, then mass must.

Answer 6

Your teacher either was in error or he miscommunicated. In fact, "weight loss" due to loss of body fat is, indeed, mass loss. He may be confusing this issue with "weight loss" due to gravity reduction, which has no impact upon mass. If gravity remains constant, a reduction in weight is necessarily a reduction in mass.

One way of asking this differently is: what does "weight loss" mean, concretely? For most people who, for example, eat a more healthful diet & exercise more, and then over a 10 week period lose 10 pounds, what has happened? What has happened is that increased metabolic activity combined with reduced calorie consumption has caused the body to metabolize stored fat to meet energy needs. This stored fat is then converted through the metabolic process into heat energy to power cells and metabolite by-products of that process; the excess mass has absolutely left the body through normal elimination (e.g., urination, perspiration, defecation, etc.).

What he may have meant is that non-weight-impacting body shape reconfiguration (in other words, turning fat to muscle with a visible change in one's waistline but no net change to weight) is of course not a change in mass. Or he may have been thinking about gravitic changes. But otherwise, he was wrong, and you were right.

Answer 7

if u start a diet regime and r losing weight the proper way, the fat burns and redistributes itself 2 where its needed.
after about a month or 2 of dieting ur body reaches a plateau and u start losing inches (mass) instead of pounds.
thats y alot of people give up their routine becuz they think the diet is failing. ur body does need fat and also the "good" cholesterol.

Answer 8

definitely your mass at 190 lbs is less than the mass at 200lbs.but how mush mass you last is depend upon what mass you last from your body ie.,whether you lost the water or fat etc.

Answer 9

No. your weight is your mass times the acceleration due to gravity. If your weight decreases, and gravity remains constant, then your mass decreased.

Answer 10

if we are talking about body mass index then your mass would unequivacally be different.