Saturday, August 30, 2014

If I weigh 5 stone 9 pounds and 4 ounces what planet will I weigh more on and why?

Mass and weight are often used interchangeably, although the two are different quantities. Mass is a measure of the matter contained within a body, while weight is the product of mass and the acceleration due to gravity (according to Newton's second law of motion) and thus, weight is a force.


In this question, the units used (stone, pound and ounce) are all unit of mass. Thus, the question should be "If I have a mass of 5 stones,. . .".


As already stated, weight is a product of mass and acceleration due to gravity. The mass of a body remains constant, since the matter contained within a body stays the same, irrespective of the planet one is on. This also means that the planet with the highest gravity will have the highest weight of a given body, since it will have the highest value of acceleration due to gravity.


Among the planets of the solar system, Jupiter has the highest value of acceleration due to gravity and hence a body will have the highest weight on Jupiter as compared to other planets. On Earth, the acceleration due to gravity has a value of about 9.81 m/s^2. On Jupiter, the same is equal to 24.8 m/s^2. Thus, a body will weigh 2.5 times (= 24.8/9.81) more on Jupiter as compared to Earth. 


Using the same process, one can check that a body on Mercury will weigh only 0.38 times its Earth weight.


Hope this helps.

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