5 Minute Lectures: MASS or weight?

EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO RELATED

CONCEPTS IN PHYSICS
By J. M. Culver MS, Physics

Every year a civil engineering professor would visit the physics chair, Dr. B,
in his office at the University, and ask, “Now…tell me again what is the
difference between mass and weight?”
Of course, Dr. B always got a laugh when he told this to his physics students
because the visiting professor really didn’t know, and we all knew that other
professor was a just a little bit pompous. The engineering professor who
asked that question was not really ignorant, but for the non-physicist, even if
an engineer, the difference between the two concepts can be a confusing.

There are two mathematical concepts that must be understood first. These
mathematical concepts are called scalars and vectors. Mass would be an
example of a scalar, while weight would be an example of a vector. Any
scalar is simply described as a quantity or amount of something. A pile of
rocks or a pile of sand is a simple example. We can then contrast this with a
vector which is anything that has both quantity (an amount) and a direction
with which that quantity is moving, flowing, or pointing. If you picked up a
rock and threw it towards the east, then you have just created a vector since
a quantity, the rock, is now moving towards the east. Hence it has become a
vector.

Mass is defined as the amount of matter. Mass is a scalar because there is

no direction associated with such a quantity. The confusion with weight
probably comes, at least in part, from the way that mass is measured in
general. We use a scale to measure mass. An ordinary bathroom scale is
such an example. Most scales don’t actually give the mass. In fact scales
actually measure gravitational pull. Therefore, what scales give to you,
when you stand upon them, is your weight, or the weight of whatever you
have placed on the scale. Weight is a measure of the gravitational pull of
the Earth (also called gravity). In other words, it is the measure of the force
that the earth pulls upon on you, and upon all other masses, and is therefore
a vector having both an amount (the strength of the pull) and a direction
(towards the center of the Earth).
There is a further confusion when you consider that mass is used to define
force and therefore weight! The basic formula for force is:
Force = (mass)(acceleration) or F = ma

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Since weight is a measure of the force of gravity, it follows the same
mathematical form as that for force in general and has the formula:
Weight = (mass)(acceleration due to gravity) or W = mg

g , the acceleration due to gravity, has been found experimentally to be

about 32 feet per second per second.

Thus the concept of mass and weight are inextricably bound together by the
force and gravity definitions and the only reasonable way to keep them clear
is to remember that weight is force and mass helps create it. However, it
that is still not succinct enough for you then use one of these mnemonic
device to help keep it clear:

“Mass pull’s its own weight.”

Or

“mass has weight!”