if the mass of an object and gravity determines its weight,?

Question

does that mean that earth is weightless in space do to the fact that there is no gravity other that the suns.

Answer 1

First of all, mass and weight as two different things.

Mass is defined as the amount of matter in substance. No matter where that substance is, it has its own mass. For example, if your mass is 50 kg on Earth, it'll be 50 kg in space.

Weight is the amount of force exerted on or by an object on another. The biggest factor affecting weight is gravity. Without gravity, there'd be no weight. For example, if you weighed 600 N on Earth, you'd be 100 N on the moon as the moon has one sixth the gravity on Earth. (For those physics fans out there, Weight is equal to mass multiplied by gravity).

The Earth does have a mass. All matter has a mass.

The Earth does have weight. It is affected by the sun's gravitational orbit. If there was no force of gravity, then you could say that Earth is weightless, but as long as Earth orbits the sun, there is weight.

Answer 2

I think I understand your question. If an object were all alone in space with nothing in the same area - would it be weightless.
The answer is no.
In relation to the earth, it is orbiting the sun - if it were weightless, it would not have the momentum needed to keep it from simply heading toward and crashing into the sun. The centripetal force caused by its mass and velocity is necessarily equal and opposite to its attraction to the sun's gravitational field.

Answer 3

According to the General Theory of Relativity, earth is following a geodesic (shortest space-time path) in spacetime. As a result, it experiences no forces. Since weight is a force, earth is therefore weightless. The same applies to any object moving freely in space in a gravitational field; astronauts in a satellite are travelling a geodesic path around earth and are therefore weightless.

Answer 4

The Earth is Weightless in Space, experiencing no Friction in Rotation, only Wormwood Hitting "Earth" affects

Answer 5

If it was weightless, the sun could not hold it in its orbit. It is the weight (mass) of both bodies that keep them together.

Answer 6

OK - look at it this way... it has mass - right? It doesn't just fly off into space - does it? The sun has got one heck of a lot of gravitational attraction.

Answer 7

Honestly, if an object were all alone in space, it probably wouldn't have any weight. I used to have a really bizarre chemistry teacher who thought that there's no such thing as weight.