a Ton of bricks, a Ton of feathers or a Ton of water
2007-07-19 23:45:10 · 26 answers · asked by hannah_detain 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
They are all the same - each weighs a ton
2007-07-19 23:47:06 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The answer is clearly that they all have the same mass, as they are all a ton...but its a Friday afternoon, and no-one has yet risen to the challenge of showing that the weight might actually be different, so lets have a bit of fun...
They all have the same mass - mass being a measure of the amount of "stuff" that's there. But the other way you can think of heaviness is "weight", which is the force due to gravity acting on the stuff. Weight is mass times gravity, and since we generally assume that gravity is constant at teh Earth's surface, then to a first approximation, the weight is the same also.
But because the density of bricks, feathers and water are different, they will take up different volumes. The feathers will take up more space. If we assume that each lot of stuff is in a cube, the pile of feathers will be higher than the pile of bricks.
The strength of gravity decreases slowly as you move away from the earth's surface (after all, there's none at all in outer space). So if the pile of feathers is higher, then the top bits of the pile will experience less gravity, and so the weight of the feathers will be less. Unless you've spread them out to be the same thickness as the bricks.
Of course, the difference is going to be pretty undetectable, but in theory it's there...
2007-07-20 11:53:54 · answer #2 · answered by Lou B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A ton of feathers is heavier on earth than a ton of bricks on the moon.
2007-07-20 06:47:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You seem to be confusing the WEIGHT of an object with the DENSITY of that object. Weight is defined as the sum total of matter contained in an object, while its density is the weight (or quantity of matter) contained in a unit volume of that object. Following the above explanation, a ton of any object on earth has the same weight, but not their densities. For example, of the objects you listed above, brick has the highest density, followed by water with feathers being the least dense.
2007-07-20 07:04:59 · answer #4 · answered by Paleologus 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's a classic question. The answer is that they all weigh the same, because you have a ton of each.
Now the volume and density will vary drastically because of the amount of each different material required to weigh a ton.
2007-07-20 08:35:02 · answer #5 · answered by dkillinx 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't they all weigh a ton means they have the same mass. How could one be more heavier than the other?
2007-07-20 06:51:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A ton of feathers is lighter if you remove them from the birds away after weighing them.
2007-07-20 06:57:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
they are all the same...each having a mass of a ton.
2007-07-20 19:21:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ton of bricks...... i think...... not sure but they probably all weigh the same lol!!!
2007-07-20 06:55:25 · answer #9 · answered by Amanda W 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
funny! ha ha if they are all a ton they are all the same
2007-07-20 06:47:38 · answer #10 · answered by stacey p 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋