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Gravity
- Gravity is the force by which a planet or other body draws objects toward its center. The force of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit around the sun.
- This website provides good information and examples of gravity, mass and weight.
Weight
- The weight of an object is defined as the force of gravity on the object and may be calculated as the mass times the acceleration of gravity, w = mg. Since the weight is a force, its SI unit is the newton.
- Weight is just another word for the force of gravity. Weight is a force that acts at all times on all objects near Earth.
Mass
- We use the word mass to talk about how much matter there is in something. (Matter is anything you can touch physically.)
- Mass is a measurement of how much matter is in an object. Mass is a combination of the total number of atoms, the density of the atoms, and the type of atoms in an object.