Issac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation tells us that the force of attraction between two objects is proportional the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between their centers of mass. We start by determining the mass of the Earth. It's all down to gravity.Barry Lienert, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii, provides the following explanation.
A bit like me on this roundabout.The object with the greatest mass sits at the centre and its gravitational pull attracts other objects into an orbit around it.Īnd that's why every planet in our solar system orbits the Sun. We know the gravitational pull of an object is determined by its mass. This can also help us make sense of the movement of the whole solar system.Īll the planets and moons in the solar system spin around a central point. That's why you'd weigh more on Jupiter. Gravity also keeps planets and moons in orbit. So, if my mass is 70 kilograms, then the force of gravity on me makes my weight about 1,750 Newtons. This is like weighing as much as a gorilla. So, the greater the mass of the object,the stronger the force of gravity. That's like me weighing as much as your family dog.Īt the bottom of the ride when it starts to slow down, the forces were unbalanced and I felt much heavier. This would be the same feeling on Jupiter. There, the force of gravity on a one-kilogram mass is 25 Newtons. Similar to astronauts in the space station. This would be the same feeling on Mercury. There, the force of gravity on a one-kilogram mass is just four Newtons. So, if my mass is 70 kilograms, then the force of gravity on me makes me weigh about 280 Newtons. As the chair and I fall, I'm pressing less on the chair and appear lighter. So, if my mass is 70 kilograms, then the force of gravity on me makes my weight 700 Newtons. On Earth, the force of gravity on a one-kilogram mass is ten Newtons. For example, like Jupiter.Įxcept you wouldn't just be feeling like that when you hit the bottom, you'd just always feel like that.īeing on a ride like this is the closest you can really get to actually being on another planet.īecause we know that our mass is constant, it must be the gravitational forces that make our weight change. When you was at the top and at the lightest, it's like being on a planet with less gravity, like Mercury. But when you was at the bottom on that bouncy part where you felt a bit heavier, well, that heavy feeling, that's like being on a bigger planet. Wicked! You see, that ride is like actually being on other planets.
Dizzy stomach. Dizzy stomach!Īs it, kind of, came to the bottom. Right, so what part of that ride felt the lightest?Īt the top. So we are presently, currently on planet Earth. Let's do a visit to Jupiter. Well, this ride will give us some idea of that. Guys, do you have any idea what it would be like to be on another planet and what it would feel like, what you'd weigh? Some of my mates have come down to help me show you what I mean. It's not the warmest of days here on Earth, but I'm not one to let a bit of cold get in the way of a science demo. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. Unlike weight, it's not a force.Īn object's mass has the same value anywhere in the universe. On other planets, our mass stays the same, but our weight would change. That's because the gravitational force region on different planets is different. And it's caused by the pull of gravity acting on a mass. Weight is measured in Newtons and mass is measured in kilograms. Weight is a force. The weight of something depends on its mass and the gravitational field strength. In space, it might look like there's no gravity, but astronauts are weightless because they're in orbit, so they're constantly falling towards the earth.
Gravity is a force. It attracts objects with mass towards each other. Now, it might sound a bit strange, but finding out about how our weight would change on different planets of the solar system, is linked to understanding how forces act.Īnd I've come to the fairground to find out more. If you travelled to another planet, it's not just extra-terrestrials you might have to contend with, you might also weigh twice as much as you would on earth.
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