Mass and weight |⚡3d animation | Class 9, physics |

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The difference between mass and weight is one of the most frequently asked questions. Some students often use the terms mass and weight interchangeably, which is completely wrong.In this article, we are going to learn what mass and weight are and what are the key differences between them.

Table of Contents

What is Mass?

What is Weight?

How is Weight Measured?

What is the Difference Between Mass Aad Weight?

What is Weightlessness?

Relation Between Weight And Mass

What is Mass?I

It is one of the fundamental quantities in Physics and the most basic property of matter. We can define mass as the measure of the amount of matter in a body. The SI unit of mass is Kilogram (kg).

Note: The mass of a body does not change at any time. Only for certain extreme cases when a huge amount of energy is given or taken from a body. For example: in a nuclear reaction, tiny amount of matter is converted into a huge amount of energy, this reduces the mass of the substance.

What is Weight?

It is the measure of the force of gravity acting on a body.

The formula for weight is given by:

w = mg

As weight is a force its SI unit is also the same as that of force, SI unit of weight is Newton (N). Looking at the expression of weight we see that it depends on mass and the acceleration due to gravity, the mass may not change but the acceleration due to gravity does change from place to place. To understand this concept let’s take this example,

Shape of the earth is not completely spherical, but an oblate spheroid, therefore a person standing at the equator is far away from the center of the earth than a person standing at the north pole, as acceleration due to gravity is proportional to the inverse of the square of the distance between two objects, a person standing at the north pole would experience more weight as he is closer to the center of the earth than a person standing at the equator.