If you’ve ever heard that your weight on Mars, or perhaps Jupiter, is different than your weight on Earth, don’t be confused! It’s become a common understanding that weight is a measurement of how much you weigh when that’s really not the case. It’s not that you lose or gain a couple of pounds when you go to the moon or a different planet. Our mass stays the same; just the way that it’s interpreted changes.
Whenever someone thinks of weight, they think of it as a way to, again, measure how many pounds or kilograms you have. But weight isn’t how much matter you carry—that’s mass. Weight is simply a measurement of the “amount of force acting on a mass due to the acceleration due to gravity” (ThoughtCo).
Every planet has a gravitational pull, or in simpler words, an attraction that planets or other pieces of matter exert on an object in order to keep it grounded. Weight simply measures the amount of force that is needed to keep you grounded on this planet and from flying off into space. And since every planet has a different gravitational pull, your weight on every planet is different.
For example, the gravitational pull of Jupiter is 24.79 meters per seconds squared. Meanwhile, for Earth, it’s only 9.807 meters per seconds squared. Jupiter’s gravity is almost 2.4 times stronger than Earth’s, meaning your weight on Jupiter would be 2.4 times your weight on Earth.
And that is the science behind weight! I hope you had fun reading this article and learned something new! And even if you didn’t, at least you know now that if you ever want to lose weight, you might just want to consider a trip to Mars!
Happy Learning!
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