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Welcome to our Physics lesson on The Difference between Weight and Mass, this is the fifth lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Types of Forces I. Gravitational Force and Weight, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
People very often confuse weight and mass. This is because when an object rests on a balance, it shows the mass in kilogram. However, this is a trick used by the balance constructors to avoid problems since people are more familiar to the concept of mass. Even the popular terminology used in this case is confusing. We say "This object weighs 50 kg" instead of "The mass of this object is 50 kg."
In fact, the balance measures the weight in Newtons but when stamping units in the balance, the constructors convert them in kilograms by dividing weight with the gravitational field strength. Therefore, a balance shows 60 kg instead of 60 × 9.81 = 588.6 N when a 60 kg object rests on it.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 4.2.5 The Difference between Weight and Mass. There are 5 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Types of Forces I. Gravitational Force and Weight, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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