What is the differnce between weight & mass of a body?

Question

What is the differnce between weight & mass of a body?

Answer 1

Mass is the amount of matter present in a body and is an intrinsic property of the body. Mass of an object remains the same always at any place.

Weight on the other hand is the force which a given mass feels due to the gravity at its place. Weight is measured in units of Force like Newton (which is the SI unit of Force).

If your mass is 60 kgs then your weight is approximately 60 x 10 = 600 Newtons. This is because

Force = mass x acceleration (From Newton's second Law)

Thus, weight = mass x acceleration due to gravity

W=mg

Differences between Mass and Weight

Mass                                                               

1.Is always a constant at any place and time.

2.Is measured in kilograms in SI unit   

3.Is measured using balance           

4.Can never be zero                       

5.Is an intrinsic property of a body

and is independent of any external factor.

Weight

1.Depends on gravity at the place

2.Is measured in Newtons (not in kilograms as one might think)

3.Is measured using scales

4.Can also be zero

5.Depends on

(1) Mass of the object which is attracting it

(2) Force with which it is being attracted (which in turn depends on the distance between the two)  

Answer 2

The mass of a body is a physical property, which is the same wherever it is measured in the universe.

The weight of a body depends upon the effect of gravity upon it. Thus, the weight of a body comes from the expression: -

F = mg    (where m is the bodies mass and g is the acceleration due to gravity).

Since weight depends upon the force of gravity it will vary from place to place on the surface of the earth! This is because the acceleration 'g' due to gravity is slightly less at the equator with a value of perhaps 9.78 m/s² but at the poles it has value of 9.82 m/s² . Hence, in deep space, where the acceleration due to gravity is almost zero, a body has an almost zero weight.  

Answer 3

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Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight

read it fully it ll help

Answer 5

Weight = mg

so weight depends on the gravity...

You would weigh differently on the moon..

whereas mass is the amount of matter in the body...

This cannot change irrespective of where you are...

Answer 6

mass is a sort of constant measurement but weight is something measurable that differs . weight is a sort of force a person feel when something more massive than him attract him as the result of gravitational      

intensity when he is in touch with that mass or on boarding of anything which also attract by that mass and according to newtons third law when you will exerts force on anything you will also get same amount of force in return. so a free falling object has not any weight just the mass  

Answer 7

mass is the amount of matter in a body

weight is the force that Earth is exerting on a body

mass is a scalar quantity, no direction

weight is vector, directed downwards

mass is a basic quantity, kg

weight is a derived quantity, kg*m/s/s

Answer 8

Mass measures the quantity of matter in an object (although this is not a very precise definition). Since this quantity is inherent to the object and does not depend on any external factor, mass of an object remains the same irrespective of whether the object is on the earth or mars or moon or for that matter any other planet.

Mass is also a measure of the inertia of an object (Inertia of an object is its tendency to resist any change in its state of motion) . In other words, mass is the measure of the resistance to the change of state of motion of the object. This means that for the same applied force, an object with a larger mass experiences a smaller acceleration (the object offers greater resistance to change in state of motion) and an object with smaller mass experience a larger acceleration (the object offers smaller resistance to change of state of motion) (You can verify using the formula acceleration =F/m)

Weight on the other hand measures the force of gravity acting on an object. It is given by the formula W=mg. Here 'm' is the mass of the body and 'g' is the acceleration due to gravity (the rate at which the speed of a freely falling body increases). Although the mass of an object is the same everywhere, the acceleration due to gravity (g) is different on different planets. Hence the weight of an object is not the same on different planets.

For example, the acceleration due to gravity on the surface is mars is 0.38 times that of the value on the surface of the earth. Hence an object will weight 0.38 times as much as it weighs on the surface on the earth.

Answer 9

mass is a fundamental quantity.weight is a derived quantity.

weight is the force exerted by earth on you because of its gravitational property and your mass.mass is the quantity of matter.weight depends on acceleration that another body exerts on you(here earth).your mass anywhere in this universe is same.

from newton's second law, we can say,

F=ma

here as acceleration is due to gravity,we can say a=g

W=mg

where W is weight of the body,g is acceleration due to gravity of earth.

if you go to other planet which has more mass by itself and thus having more gravitational attraction,your weight also increases and you will feel very hard to stand,however your mass remains same.

hope this long explanation helps you

vote this as best if it clears your confusion.

Answer 10

Simply speaking mass of a body means the amount of matter present in the body, which may be solid, liquid or gas. But on the other hand when a body is placed in the gravitational force of any other body they start attracting each other. That is as a result of this gravitational or attractive force between the two the lighter among the two changes its position which results to an acceleration. In the case of the attractive force of the earth it is the acceleration due to gravity which is denoted by

g'. Now for calculation purposes we take g= 9.8 m/s2. Now with this we can measure the amount of gravitational force being exerted by the bodies in between them. This force is directly proportional to the mass of the body (i.e., the amount of matter present in the body) and also to the acceleration due to gravity. Thus weight of a body is the force with which it is attracted towards the other body which is measured as a force and the unit is Newton. Mass being a measure of matter is measured in kgs, gms etc.