What is the difference between mass and weight?
33931#20
In modern scientific usage, weight and mass are fundamentally different quantities: mass is an intrinsic property of matter, whereas weight is a "force" that results from the action of gravity on matter: it measures how strongly the force of gravity pulls on that matter. However, in most practical everyday situations the word "weight" is used when, strictly, "mass" is meant. For example, most people would say that an object "weighs one kilogram", even though the kilogram is a unit of mass.
Weight
14476384#6
In the physical sciences, the terms "mass" and "weight" are rigidly defined as separate measures, as they are different physical properties. In everyday use, as all everyday objects have both mass and weight and one is almost exactly proportional to the other, "weight" often serves to describe both properties, its meaning being dependent upon context. For example, in retail commerce, the "net weight" of products actually refers to mass, and is expressed in mass units such as grams or ounces (see also "Pound: Use in commerce)". Conversely, the load index rating on automobile tires, which specifies the maximum structural load for a tire in kilograms, refers to weight; that is, the force due to gravity. Before the late 20th century, the distinction between the two was not strictly applied in technical writing, so that expressions such as "molecular weight" (for molecular mass) are still seen.
Mass versus weight
43537463#6
Although the size of an object may be reflected in its mass or its weight, each of these is a different concept. In scientific contexts, mass refers loosely to the amount of "matter" in an object (though "matter" may be difficult to define), whereas weight refers to the force experienced by an object due to gravity. An object with a mass of 1.0 kilogram will weigh approximately 9.81 newtons (newton is the unit of force, while kilogram is the unit of mass) on the surface of the Earth (its mass multiplied by the gravitational field strength). Its weight will be less on Mars (where gravity is weaker), more on Saturn, and negligible in space when far from any significant source of gravity, but it will always have the same mass. Two objects of equal size, however, may have very different mass and weight, depending on the composition and density of the objects. By contrast, if two objects are known to have roughly the same composition, then some information about the size of one can be determined by measuring the size of the other, and determining the difference in weight between the two. For example, if two blocks of wood are equally dense, and it is known that one weighs ten kilograms and the other weighs twenty kilograms, and that the ten kilogram block has a volume of one cubic foot, then it can be deduced that the twenty kilogram block has a volume of two cubic feet.
Size
33931#25
In a different gravitational field, for example, on the surface of the Moon, an object can have a significantly different weight than on Earth. The gravity on the surface of the Moon is only about one-sixth as strong as on the surface of the Earth. A one-kilogram mass is still a one-kilogram mass (as mass is an intrinsic property of the object) but the downward force due to gravity, and therefore its weight, is only one-sixth of what the object would have on Earth. So a man of mass 180 pounds weighs only about 30 pounds-force when visiting the Moon.
Weight
67046#6
Thermal mass is effective in improving building comfort in any place that experiences these types of daily temperature fluctuations—both in winter as well as in summer.
When used well and combined with passive solar design, thermal mass can play an important role in major reductions to energy use in active heating and cooling systems.
The terms "heavy-weight" and "light-weight" are often used to describe buildings with different thermal mass strategies, and affects the choice of numerical factors used in subsequent calculations to describe their thermal response to heating and cooling.
In building services engineering, the use of dynamic simulation computational modelling software has allowed for the accurate calculation of the environmental performance within buildings with different constructions and for different annual climate data sets. This allows the architect or engineer to explore in detail the relationship between heavy-weight and light-weight constructions, as well as insulation levels, in reducing energy consumption for mechanical heating or cooling systems, or even removing the need for such systems altogether.
Thermal mass
19604151#2
The atomic mass or relative isotopic mass refers to the mass of a single particle, and therefore is tied to a certain specific isotope of an element. The dimensionless standard atomic weight instead refers to the average (mathematical mean) of atomic mass values of a typical naturally-occurring mixture of isotopes for a sample of an element. Atomic mass values are thus commonly reported to many more significant figures than atomic weights. Standard atomic weight is related to atomic mass by the abundance ranking of isotopes for each element. It is usually "about" the same value as the atomic mass of the most abundant isotope, other than what looks like (but is not actually) a rounding difference.
Atomic mass
33931#22
The Earth's gravitational field is not uniform but can vary by as much as 0.5% at different locations on Earth (see Earth's gravity). These variations alter the relationship between weight and mass, and must be taken into account in high precision weight measurements that are intended to indirectly measure mass. Spring scales, which measure local weight, must be calibrated at the location at which the objects will be used to show this standard weight, to be legal for commerce.
Weight
15492#6
These measurements were in use from 1826, when the new imperial gallon was defined, but were officially abolished in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1971. In the USA, though no longer recommended, the apothecaries' system is still used occasionally in medicine, especially in prescriptions for older medications.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the UK used three different systems for mass and weight. The distinction between mass and weight is not always clearly drawn. Strictly a pound is a unit of mass, although it is commonly referred to as a weight. When a distinction is necessary, the term "pound-force" may be used to refer to a unit of force rather than mass. The troy pound () was made the primary unit of mass by the 1824 Act; however, its use was abolished in the UK on 1 January 1879, with only the troy ounce () and its decimal subdivisions retained. The "Weights and Measures Act 1855" (18 & 19 Victoria C72) made the avoirdupois pound the primary unit of mass. In all the systems, the fundamental unit is the pound, and all other units are defined as fractions or multiples of it.
Imperial units
19048#9
In everyday usage, mass and "weight" are often used interchangeably. For instance, a person's weight may be stated as 75 kg. In a constant gravitational field, the weight of an object is proportional to its mass, and it is unproblematic to use the same unit for both concepts. But because of slight differences in the strength of the Earth's gravitational field at different places, the distinction becomes important for measurements with a precision better than a few percent, and for places far from the surface of the Earth, such as in space or on other planets. Conceptually, "mass" (measured in kilograms) refers to an intrinsic property of an object, whereas "weight" (measured in newtons) measures an object's resistance to deviating from its natural course of free fall, which can be influenced by the nearby gravitational field. No matter how strong the gravitational field, objects in free fall are weightless, though they still have mass.
Mass
14476384#0
In common usage, the mass of an object is often referred to as its weight, though these are in fact different concepts and quantities. In scientific contexts, mass is the amount of "matter" in an object (though "matter" may be difficult to define), whereas weight is the force exerted on an object by gravity. In other words, an object with a mass of 1.0 kilogram will weigh approximately 9.81 newtons on the surface of the Earth (its mass multiplied by the gravitational field strength), since the newton is a unit of force, while the kilogram is a unit of mass. The object's weight will be less on Mars (where gravity is weaker), more on Saturn, and negligible in space when far from any significant source of gravity, but it will always have the same mass.
Mass versus weight