What units can measure weight?

1 Answer
David Drayer · Truong-Son N.
May 22, 2018

Technically, Newtons, #"N"#, or a #"kg"cdot"m/s"^2#.

Explanation:

A weight is a force.
Newtons is a unit of force.

Mass in a gravitational field creates a force, but mass by itself is not a force.

#vecF_g = mvecg#, #" "vecg = -"9.80665 m/s"^2#

Mass is often used (technically incorrectly) as an indirect measure of weight. Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in a substance, not a measure of force.

Mass is more accurately a measure of inertia, #I prop mr^2# (where #r# is the distance to the axis of rotation).

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