How does mass relate to weight when gravity is constant?

How does mass relate to weight when gravity is constant?

• A. Weight is proportional to mass.
• B. Weight is inversely proportional to mass.
• C. Weight is independent of mass.
• D. Mass becomes weight when gravity changes.

Answer: (A)

Weight is the gravitational force acting on an object, so when gravity is constant, weight scales directly with mass. The relationship is F_g = m g; with g fixed, increasing mass increases the force in a proportional way. Doubling the mass doubles the weight, tripling the mass triples the weight, and so on. This also highlights the distinction between mass and weight: mass is a measure of how much matter an object contains and is independent of location, while weight is the force due to gravity and changes with gravity. The other ideas misstate the relationship: weight cannot be inversely proportional to mass, nor can it be independent of mass, and mass does not become weight simply because gravity changes—the gravity factor scales weight but doesn’t turn mass into weight.

Weight is the gravitational force acting on an object, so when gravity is constant, weight scales directly with mass. The relationship is F_g = m g; with g fixed, increasing mass increases the force in a proportional way. Doubling the mass doubles the weight, tripling the mass triples the weight, and so on. This also highlights the distinction between mass and weight: mass is a measure of how much matter an object contains and is independent of location, while weight is the force due to gravity and changes with gravity. The other ideas misstate the relationship: weight cannot be inversely proportional to mass, nor can it be independent of mass, and mass does not become weight simply because gravity changes—the gravity factor scales weight but doesn’t turn mass into weight.