Science Common Sense

1048 - What is the difference between mass and weight?

Imagine you're holding a big bag of apples on Earth and then you go to the Moon with it.

'Mass' is how many apples are actually in the bag, which doesn't change no matter where you go. It's like the number of apples, and it stays the same.

'Weight', on the other hand, is how heavy those apples feel when you're holding the bag. Since the Moon has less gravity than Earth, the bag of apples will feel lighter on the Moon even though the number of apples (mass) is the same.

So, mass is about how much "stuff" is in something, and weight is about how heavy it feels because of gravity.