Q:
Why is mass more useful than weight for measuring matter?
A:
Mass is a basic property of a given object, whereas weight is actually variable throughout the universe because it is actually a measure of the force exerted by a given object and not a property of the object itself.
Weight, unlike mass, is a function of both gravity and mass; that is, an increase in mass will cause a corresponding increase in weight if it is placed within a gravitational field.
However, a given object's weight will vary from place to place (namely from planet to planet or within a spinning centrifuge) because of the effects of gravity. Mass, on the other hand, is independent of gravity. Thus, three grams on Earth can be considered the same as three grams on the moon or on Jupiter or in the vacuum of space. Imagine weight were used to measure the amount of matter. If this were so, all objects in space would appear to contain the same amount of matter because they all had an apparent weight of zero. Using mass as a metric instead, one can differentiate objects in space from one another by the amount of matter that they contain (their mass).
https://pippagoldenberg.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/weight-and-centrifugal-force/
https://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/weightvmass.html
Monday, March 17, 2014
Why is mass more useful than weight for measuring matter
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
Friar Lawrence plays a significant role in Romeo and Juliet's fate and is responsible not only for secretly marrying the two lovers but ...
-
Resourceful: Phileas Fogg doesn't let unexpected obstacles deter him. For example, when the railroad tracks all of a sudden end in India...
-
Pablo Neruda's "Ode to My Socks" is full of figurative language, including similes and metaphors. Similes are figurative compa...
-
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
At the beginning of the Victorian period, science was generally in accord with religion, and the study of nature was conducted in such a way...
-
I would like to start by making it clear that this story is told from the third person omniscient point of view. At no point is the story to...
-
In Jeanne DuPrau's sci-fi novel The City of Ember, twelve-year-old characters Lina and Doon are citizens of a post-apocalyptic society, ...
No comments:
Post a Comment