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The mass of an object is a measure of the object’s inertial property, or the amount of matter it contains. The weight of an object is a measure of the force exerted on the object by gravity, or the force needed to support it. The pull of gravity on the earth gives an object a downward acceleration of about 9.8 m/s 2.
The most common definition of weight found in introductory physics textbooks defines weight as the force exerted on a body by gravity. [1][12] This is often expressed in the formula W = mg, where W is the weight, m the mass of the object, and g gravitational acceleration. In 1901, the 3rd General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM ...
Assuming SI units, F is measured in newtons (N), m 1 and m 2 in kilograms (kg), r in meters (m), and the constant G is 6.674 30 (15) × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2. [11] The value of the constant G was first accurately determined from the results of the Cavendish experiment conducted by the British scientist Henry Cavendish in 1798 ...
Mass can be experimentally defined as a measure of the body's inertia, meaning the resistance to acceleration (change of velocity) when a net force is applied. [1] The object's mass also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies. The SI base unit of mass is the kilogram (kg).
The seven SI base units. The SI comprises a coherent system of units of measurement starting with seven base units, which are the second (symbol s, the unit of time), metre (m, length), kilogram (kg, mass), ampere (A, electric current), kelvin (K, thermodynamic temperature), mole (mol, amount of substance), and candela (cd, luminous intensity).
The kilogram, symbol kg, is the SI unit of mass. It is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.626 070 15 × 10−34 when expressed in the unit J⋅s, which is equal to kg⋅m 2 ⋅s −1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of c and ΔνCs. — CGPM [7][8]
Experiment measuring the force of gravity (1797–1798) Cavendish's diagram of his torsion pendulum, seen from above. The pendulum consists of two small spherical lead weights (h, h) hanging from a 6-foot horizontal wooden beam supported in the center by a fine torsion wire. The beam is protected from air currents inside a wooden box (A, A, A, A).
Richarz and Krigar-Menzel (1898) attempted a repetition of the Cavendish experiment using 100,000 kg of lead for the attracting mass. The precision of their result of 6.683(11) × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2 was, however, of the same order of magnitude as the other results at the time. [27]