Wikijunior:Solar System/About gravity, mass, and weight
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Please see About weight and gravity for an alternate version of this module.
Do you know your weight in kilograms or pounds? On Earth, your weight is a number. If you are heavier, then this number is larger. If you go to the moon, or to a space station, is this number the same? Some people say that it is the same, and some people say that it is different. To understand why, you need to know about gravity, mass, and weight.
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[edit] Mass
Like many words, the word weight can have several different meanings. One meaning of weight is called mass. The word "mass" is used in astronomy and other parts of science.
The mass of an object is simply the amount of material the object is made of. The more material the object is made of, the more mass it has. Things that have a big mass are harder to move and harder to stop than objects with just a little bit of mass. So an empty box (with only air inside) is easier to move than a box filled with books. The box with books has more material, more mass than the empty box.
Your mass is a number for how much stuff your body has. That is, if you eat too much food, your mass will increase; the number for your mass becomes larger. If you start a diet, your mass will decrease; the number for your mass becomes smaller. In countries that use the metric system, also called the "Système International" or SI, the units of mass are often in kilograms (kg).
Suppose that one child had a mass of 40 kg. Now suppose that you go to the moon or to a space station, but you do not eat too much or start a diet. Then the number for how much stuff your body has does not change. The child's mass on the moon or at a space station is 40 kg.
Your mass on any planet on the solar system (Jupiter, Venus, Earth, or anywhere else) is the same. But if you step on a scale, the reading would be different on all of these planets.
[edit] Gravity
There is another meaning of "weight", called "force of gravity". The word "weight" can mean one of two things, "mass" or "force of gravity". But what is "gravity"?
Suppose you jump into the air. You cannot fly, but instead you fall and land on the ground. There is a force which pulls you to the ground. This force is called gravity. The Earth makes gravity, so every time that you jump, you will land on Earth again, because the Earth's gravity pulls you.
Which objects make gravity? To make significant gravity, an object must have a very large number for mass. A child is only 40 kg. Earth is about 5974200000000000000000000 kg. The Earth has enough mass to make children fall when they jump.
Actually, all things with mass make gravity and attract one another. The more mass an object has, the more it attracts other objects toward it. So while the Earth can pull on a child, the child can also pull on the Earth. Because the child is only 40 kg, the child makes almost no gravity, and no person sees the Earth move.
The moon, the other planets, and the sun each have enough mass to make gravity. When you were on Earth, the moon, the other planets, and the sun were too far away, so you landed on Earth again. (Gravity pulls us towards the center of the Earth when we are on Earth. It would pull us towards the center of Venus if we were on Venus.)
Suppose you went to the moon. Now the Earth is too far away. When you jump from the moon, you will land on the moon again. The mass of the moon is about 73600000000000000000000 kg. This is less than the mass of the Earth. The consequence is that the moon makes less gravity than the Earth. The force of gravity on you at the moon is less than the force of gravity on you at the Earth.
[edit] Newtons
is pulled more strongly by gravity than a ball-bearing, it has more mass and takes more effort to start moving. A ball-bearing has less mass, but takes less effort to start moving. Both then take the same amount of time to reach the bottom of a ramp.
Why, then, does something like a feather or piece of paper take so much longer to fall to the ground than a cannonball? This is because the resistance from the air in which they're falling is much greater for the feather or paper than for the cannonball. What happens, then, if you take away the air? In 1971, astronaut David Scott visited the Moon, where there is no air. He held a feather and hammer in each hand and then dropped them. They both hit the ground at the same time.
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[edit] A table showing how gravity changes what happens elsewhere
If you are able to travel to another world, like the astronauts of the Apollo lunar exploration crews, there are a number of things that you would notice that are different from what you would experience on the Earth. There are also some things that would be just the same, so it would take a little bit of getting used to all of those changes.
The following is a table regarding what kinds of experiences you would have if you visited different planets or moons in the Solar System:
| Earth | Pluto | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface Gravity (compared to Earth) |
1.0 | 0.06 | |||||
| Your weight (mass) | 40 kg | 40 kg | |||||
| Energy needed to stop 1 kg ball moving at 90 km/hr | 625 joules | 625 joules | |||||
| How much you can lift |
10 kg | 170 kg | |||||
| How high you can jump |
20 cm | 340 cm | |||||
| How long it takes to fall back to the ground | 0.4 s | 6.8 s | |||||
| How far you can kick a ball |
20 m | 340 m | |||||
| Note that on the gas giants such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune you probably wouldn't be able to find a place to sit down or do these things. | |||||||
One very interesting thing about living on the Moon is that in a pressurized chamber like a huge domed city, you would be able to put on wings and flap your arms to fly like birds do here on the Earth. Human powered flight is almost impossible here on the Earth because humans are too heavy on Earth.
Phobos is one of the moons of Mars, and is so tiny that the gravity almost doesn't even exist. For example, if you kick a ball real hard it will leave Phobos completely and instead go into orbit as a separate object orbiting Mars. Jumping up would take several minutes before the gravity would pull you back down, so you could jump over a mountain on that moon of Mars if you wanted to. It would also be possible to jump too high and leave that moon altogether.
It is also interesting to see that of all the objects in the Solar System with a "solid" surface that you can walk on, the Earth has the strongest gravity. Jupiter and Saturn may have stronger gravity, but there is nothing you can say is a "solid" surface to walk on. There may be planets that are larger than the Earth with a solid surface, but they are not found in our Solar System.
[edit] A table with force in newtons
Let's say that, on the Earth, your bathroom scale says you weigh 86 pounds (lb), which is just over 39 kilograms (kg).
| Earth | Pluto | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight in lb | 86 lb | 32.7 lb | |||||
| Mass in kg | 39 kg | 39 kg | |||||
| Weight in N | 382.5 N | 145.4 N | |||||
| Note that on the gas giants such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune you won't be able to find a place to set down your scale and weigh yourself. | |||||||
