Learn more physics!
Q:
Does mass affect gravity?
- Sanah Jivani (age 11)
Spring, Texas, USA
A:
Hi Sanah,
You bet! Mass affects gravity. For example if you weigh 100 pounds on earth, you would only weigh about 16 pounds on the moon. The reason is that the earth has much more mass than the moon and, according to Newton, your weight is proportional to your mass times the mass of the attracting body. There is an additional factor of the radius of the moon compared to that of the earth and has to be taken into account. Take a look at
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html for some more information.
LeeH
(published on 04/23/2009)
Follow-up on this answer.
