We know that weight and mass are different things and are often confused on a daily basis. Our weight on Earth is the result of our mass and the effect of gravity. However, even though our mass remains the same, our weight is different on other planets. Your weight on other planets differs from the one you have on our planet.
In this article we are going to tell you what your weight is on other planets, what they affect and how to calculate it.
What is gravity
Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that exists due to the mutual attraction between two objects with mass. This force is what keeps all objects with mass, such as planets, stars, and everyday objects, stuck to the ground or moving through space.
Gravity was first conceptualized by the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton in the XNUMXth century. According to his law of gravity, any object with mass attracts other objects with mass in direct proportion to its mass and in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between them. This means that the greater the mass of an object and the closer two objects are to each other, the greater the force of gravitational attraction between them.
On Earth, gravity is what keeps us on the ground and gives weight to objects. The mass of the Earth generates a force of gravity that pulls everything towards its center. This force is what makese objects fall when we drop them and it is also responsible for the Moon orbiting the Earth and the Earth orbiting the Sun.
mass and weight
Although these terms are easily confused in everyday work, since it is customary to refer to the mass itself as weight, they are not the same thing at all. When you step on the scale, the value it gives you is not your weight, but the mass of your body. That is, the amount of matter that composes you. It is not correct to say that your weight is 70 kg, because those 70 kg are not your weight, but your mass.
What you really weigh is equal to the force with which a planet pulls you towards its surface. You may be confused by the colloquial confusion between the terms, but in the world of science it is normal to differentiate between them. Physics is an example where the difference is fundamental in that weight is the force between two objects, in this case an object and a planet, while mass is a simple amount of matter.
The story of Newton and Apple, supposedly, that is the origin of the theories of British physicists about gravity, the weight of objects and the attraction between objects. Thus, his second law of motion allows us to calculate the weight of all objects on Earth using the value of gravity: 9,8 m/s2. In other words, Newton made it easy for anyone to determine their own weight through his simple and elegant equation Weight = Mass x Gravity.
So, according to the equation, a human with a mass of 50 kg would actually weigh no more than 490 N (Newton, a measure of force named after the physicist) on Earth. So from now on, to be scientifically correct, that person has to say that he weighs 490 N.
How Gravity Affects the Solar System
It must be taken into account that this gravitational value is not the same throughout the solar system, in fact 9,8 m/s2 is characteristic of our planet due to its shape, composition and size. So according to Newton, if the force of gravity changes from planet to planet, your weight on each planet will also change.
Therefore, a planet that has a greater gravity than the Earth, that is, that has a greater attraction on you, would have a greater weight on you due to its surface. However, your mass will not change, it is the same on all planets and places in the universe, because after all, you will still be made of the same amount of matter.
An example is Jupiter, a gas giant with a gravity of 24,79 m/s2, more than twice that of Earth. Thus, again applying Newton's laws, the same person with a mass of 50 kg would weigh 490 N on Earth and 1.239 N on Jupiter.
Your weight on other planets
There is a way to observe the difference in weight from one planet to another in a simpler and more informal way (ie, in kilograms). The trick is to use a common scale. That's all, the scale is adjusted to our weight falling on it with Earth's gravity of 9,8 m/s2, so all they do is measure our weight and return a mass value with Newton's formula.
So if we want to measure the same data that we would get by weighing it on a scale on a different planet (assuming we can move it from Earth to space), we can obtain them by performing a simple mathematical relationship: if you weigh 50 kg at 9,8 m/s2, you would weigh 24,779 m/s2.. in other words, a simple rule of thumb.
Let's see a list of a person with a mass of 60kg on Earth what he would weigh on the rest of the planets in the solar system:
- Mercury: On Mercury, which has a gravity of about 3.7 m/s^2, a 60-kg person would weigh about 222 Newtons (N).
- Venus: On Venus, gravity is about 8.87 m/s^2, which would make a 60-kg person weigh about 532.2 N.
- Mars: On Mars, with a gravity of about 3.7 m/s^2, a 60 kg person would weigh about 222 N.
- Jupiter: On Jupiter, which is a gas giant with a gravity of about 24.8 m/s^2, a 60-kg person would weigh about 1,488 N.
- Saturn: On Saturn, with a gravity of about 10.44 m/s^2, a 60-kg person would weigh about 626.4 N.
- Uranus: On Uranus, gravity is about 8.69 m/s^2, making a 60-kg person weigh about 521.4 N.
- Neptune: On Neptune, with a gravity of about 11.15 m/s^2, a 60-kg person would weigh about 669 N.
- Pluto: On Pluto, which is a dwarf planet, gravity is much weaker, about 0.62 m/s^2, making a 60 kg person weigh only about 37.2 N.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about your weight on other planets and how it affects gravity.