what is the equivalent of 1kg in newton?

Answer 1

kg is a unit of mass, newton is a unit of weight

weight is the product of the mass and the gravity acting on the mass. So the equivalence is dependant on where you are.

However, on earth 1kg is approximately 10N

Answer 2

There actually is no comparison.

A kilogram is a measure of mass, and a Newton is a measure of force.

A Newton is a kilogram-meter per second squared.

If measured at sea level on the Earth, gravity does exert a downward force of 9.8N per kilogram, but that does not mean that a kilogram and a Newton are equivalent measures, any more than saying that a cubic centimeter equals a millileter, which is only true in the case of water.

Answer 3

On the surface of the Earth, a mass of 1kg exerts a force of 9.8 Newtons

keep in mind that kg are a unit of mass and newtons are a unit of weight (aka force acting on mass)

Answer 4

Indeed, it is important to remember that the kilogram is the measure of the mass of an object, which in turn is a measure of the amount of inertia of the object, whilst newtons are the measure of force on an object. But since, by Newton's Second Law of Mechanics, the sum of all forces on a system, measured in newtons, is the product of the mass of the system, measured in kilograms, and the acceleration of the system, measured in meters per second squared. Since we can assume, for most practical purposes, that we are in a two-body system (the earth and the system, or object, more discreetly), then we can simply use the accleration due to gravity in the equation. Then the Second Law becomes F = mg, or, in this case, m = 1kg, so F = g. Remember all the units, as that is slightly important in getting a problem right. The average acceration due to gravity on the surface of the earth is defined by CODATA to be g = 9.80665 meters per second squared.

Of course, we have made several assumptions about the system in which we are working. We have assumed that the earth is a point-like mass, so that the acceration due to gravity is the same on all points of the earth. If you want to be real technical about it, not only is the earth so large that the acceleration due to gravity is different on different parts of it, but that the universe is not really a two-body system. The universe is really full of objects, all of which exert the force of gravity on each other, by Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation. So the other objects in the universe also exert a force on the "two-body" system that we are discussing, although it plays a very small role, since the distance to the center of mass of the earth is much closer in our system than is even the closest object to our system. Realistically, the force exerted by other objects in the universe compared to the force of the earth on an object close to it is so small that it can really only be detected by instruments that can detect forces on the magnitude of 10^-9, so it plays a very insignificant role in our problem. For the most part, it can be ignored. But as for the acceleration due to gravity of the earth on different places on earth, there is more of a problem. The measurements of the acceleration due to gravity differs by several percentage points, so a strict definition of the acceleration due to gravity is impossible. Of course, for most people's problems, you can just go with CODATA and define the acceleration to be g = 9.80665 meters per second squared. Unless you're doing high-precision measurements, or working for NASA, and then you're gonna have to do some more precise measurements of gravity.

So, through this long-winded discussion of Newtonian mechanics, for most purposes, the answer to your question is, on earth, the force due to gravity on a 1kg object is pretty close to 9.8N. Unless you're working for NASA. In which case I'm kinda scared, if you're asking this kind of question on Yahoo Answers.

Answer 5

1 kg = 9.8 Newtons

Answer 6

1/9.8 N