What exactly is Mass?

You've probably heard of weight, right? Mass is related to weight, but they are not the same.

Mass is the measure of the quantity (amount) of matter that a body contains.

Weight is related to gravity (an attractive force between two bodies).  Weight is equal to the product of the object's mass and the acceleration of gravity.   The larger the mass of the planet you're on, the more
you will weigh.

So gravity must be present for an object to have weight, but an object has mass in both the presence and absence of gravity.

As you can see, weight is a little more complicated than mass.  It has to do with gravity, as well as mass.  Mass is simply a measure of the amount of matter.

Brain Twister

Which has more mass:  the bowling ball or the balloon?       (Click on the picture to see the answer to the above question) If one bowling ball was here on earth, and another bowling ball was floating weightless in space, which one would have more mass? (Go to the next page to see the answer to this question!)