Are mass and weight the same thing.?
No, they are not. Mass is the amount of matter present in a given item. Weight is the force with which gravity attracts it. I weigh 360 pounds here on the surface of Earth, but on the Moon, I’d weigh about 60 pounds. The amount of mass present in my body would not change, but my weight would change radically.
Mass is the basic property of matter (material) – measured in kilogrammes (kg) it is unchanged throughout the universe – so when you stand on the bathroom “scales” you are finding your mass not your weight – “I’m just going to mass myself “, doesn’t sound quite right though does it! Weight is the measure of the gravitational field strength (gfs) acting on a mass – measured in newtons (N). The gfs of our Earth is approximately 10N/kg (actually nearer 9.81) so a kilogram bag of sugar has a weight of 10newtons – try asking for 10 newtons of sugar and see how far it gets you!! The gfs on other planets varies – on our moon gfs is much less than on Earth – approx 2N/kg. On Jupiter the largest of the Planets it will be much greater. So the weight of a person of mass 50kg on Earth will be 50kg * 10N/kg = 500 N On the moon that person would weigh 50kg*2N/kg = 100N or 5 times less. In open space away from any planets or stars ther will be zero gfs so the mass would have zero weight (weightless).
