What is the difference between mass and weight?

Answer 1

Weight is the effect of gravity on mass. I weigh 114 pounds on Earth, but would only weigh 19 pounds on the moon, because the gravity is only one-sixth what it is here.

Mass and weight are easily confused, though, because so few people travel into space, where the effects of gravity would be any different at all than it is essentially anywhere here.

Answer 2

Mass is physical property of an object that tells you how much of it is there. By "it" I mean matter.

Weight is a force that is the result of acceleration acting on a mass.

F=ma
force is equal to mass times acceleration
weight is a force so W=mg gravity is the acceleration.

The weigth in that equation is not the same weight you and I read when on a scale. The weigth we get when on a scale is truely a mass. It is the pound mass or lbm.


If you know about scalar and vector quantities, mass is a scalar quantity, it only has a magnitude. Weight a vector quantity, it has a magnitude and direction.

Answer 3

Mass is how much matter you have in you. Weight is how much matter you have in you, based on gravity. Which means that in outer space, you have no weight, but your mass still stays the same. You may be heavier/lighter and at a different weight on other planets because the gravity is either stronger or weaker, but your mass doesn't change.

Answer 4

Mass is a measurement of the amount of matter something contains, while Weight is the measurement of the pull of gravity on an object. The Mass of an object doesn't change when an object's location changes. Weight, on the otherhand does change with location. This is a cool website, it explains the difference well and you can calculate what your weight would be on other planets:
http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/weightvmass.html

Answer 5

A golf ball has the same mass on earth as it does the moon or saturn. Mass is amount of matter. The golf ball will have differing weights depending on the gravitational acceleration of each planet or moon. Weight=mass * accleration due to gravity

Also, mass is where catholics congregate to worship.

Answer 6

In scientific usage weight and mass are quite different quantities: mass is an intrinsic property of matter, whereas weight is a force that results from the action of gravity on matter. (Scientific terms such as "atomic weight", "molecular weight", and "formula weight" are still encountered, but some discouraged these terms and terms like atomic mass are preferred.)

In everyday usage, however, weight and mass are usually not different. For instance, when we buy or sell goods "by weight", we are primarily interested in the amount of goods exchanged (the mass), not how hard they press down on the table (the weight). Similarly, in measurements of body weight we are primarily interested in the amount of tissue (fat, muscle, etc.) present. We may also say, for example, that an object "weighs one kilogram".

The gravitational force exerted on an object is directly proportional to its mass, so a mass of x kilograms always weighs x times as much as a mass of one kilogram. Weight can therefore stand as a proxy for mass, and vice versa.

The distinction between mass and force due to gravity becomes obvious when we move away from the earth's surface. For example, on the surface of the Moon gravity is only about one sixth as strong as on the surface of the earth. A one kilogram mass is still a one kilogram mass – mass is an intrinsic property of the object. However, the weight of the object – the downwards force due to gravity – is only one sixth of what it is at the surface of the earth; that is, only one sixth of what we would expect one kilogram to weigh.

Although gravity at the earth's surface is nearly constant, it does vary slightly with location, which means that objects do in fact have slightly different weights in different places. For further information see acceleration due to gravity, Physical geodesy, Gravity anomaly and Gravity.

Answer 7

Mass is the quantity of matter contained in the body

&

Weight is actually the force with which the earth(gravity) attracts the body!

Relation between them is given by: W= mg

W=Weight(force)
m=mass
g=gravity constant(9.8 m/s²)

the Equation shows, weight can be changed as value of g varies(i.e in space g is small and we willl feel small weight) while m(mass) remained constant.

Answer 8

In physics, mass is expressed in grams, kilograms, pounds, etc., while weight is exressed in newtons, joules, etc. Mass is a scalar quantity but weight is a vector quantity. For example, your mass here in earth is the same as if you are in the moon. But your weight in the earth will be different if you are in the moon because the gravitational force of the earth is different than the moon.

Answer 9

Mass is always the same. well if the object does not change. Weight is what gravity does to an object.

On the moon you would weigh only 1/7th of what you would weigh on earth. Your mass would be the same. ( If you did not puke on the way up)

Answer 10

Weight is mass times gravity.