Mass, Weight and Gravity

Question	Answer
Gravity attracts all masses, however it is only noticeable with very large objects, such as planets.	Anything near a planet is attracted to it very strongly thanks to gravity.
On the surface of a planet, Gravity makes all things accelerate towards the ground (all at the same rate, 10 m/s squared on Earth.) And gives everything a weight.	It also helps to keep satellites in orbit. Orbit is a balance between the forward motion of the object and the force of gravity pulling it inward.
Mass is the amount of matter in a object. An object will have the same mass anywhere in the universe.	Weight is the force of gravity pulling it towards the centre of the Earth. This differs depending on the strength of the gravitational pull of different planets.
Weight is measured in Newtons (N) which is measured using a newton meter.	Mass is not a force and is measured in kilograms (kg). It is measured using a mass balance.
The equation for working out weight is: Weight = mass X Gravity Or W = m x g	the value of g is always 10 on Earth, however it differs on different planets: it is only 1.6 on the moon.

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	Created by KNiGHTS over 10 years ago