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Matter Mass (Liturgy) Mass (Disambiguation) : Jump To Navigationjump To Search

Mass is a fundamental measure in physics that quantifies the amount of matter in an object. It is both a measure of an object's resistance to acceleration and determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies. The standard unit for mass is the kilogram, though it was recently redefined in terms of physical constants rather than a physical prototype for greater precision and invariance over time. Mass is distinct from but related to weight, as weight depends on both mass and local gravitational acceleration.

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53 views4 pages

Matter Mass (Liturgy) Mass (Disambiguation) : Jump To Navigationjump To Search

Mass is a fundamental measure in physics that quantifies the amount of matter in an object. It is both a measure of an object's resistance to acceleration and determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies. The standard unit for mass is the kilogram, though it was recently redefined in terms of physical constants rather than a physical prototype for greater precision and invariance over time. Mass is distinct from but related to weight, as weight depends on both mass and local gravitational acceleration.

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Mass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the scientific concept. For the substance of which all physical
objects consist, see Matter. For the main liturgical service in some Christian churches,
see Mass (liturgy). For other uses, see Mass (disambiguation).

Mass

A 2 kg (4.4 lb) cast iron weight used for balances

Common symbols m

SI unit kg

Extensive? yes

Conserved? yes

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Mass is both a property of a physical body and a measure of


its resistance to acceleration (a change in its state of motion) when a net force is
applied.[1] An object's mass also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to
other bodies.
The basic SI unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). In physics, mass is not the same
as weight, even though mass is often determined by measuring the object's weight
using a spring scale, rather than balance scale comparing it directly with known
masses. An object on the Moon would weigh less than it does on Earth because of the
lower gravity, but it would still have the same mass. This is because weight is a force,
while mass is the property that (along with gravity) determines the strength of this force.

Contents

 1Phenomena
 2Units of mass
 3Definitions
o 3.1Weight vs. mass
o 3.2Inertial vs. gravitational mass
o 3.3Origin
 4Pre-Newtonian concepts
o 4.1Weight as an amount
o 4.2Planetary motion
o 4.3Galilean free fall
 5Newtonian mass
o 5.1Newton's cannonball
o 5.2Universal gravitational mass
o 5.3Inertial mass
 6Atomic mass
 7In relativity
o 7.1Special relativity
o 7.2General relativity
 8In quantum physics
o 8.1Tachyonic particles and imaginary (complex) mass
o 8.2Exotic matter and negative mass
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12External links

Phenomena
There are several distinct phenomena which can be used to measure mass. Although
some theorists have speculated that some of these phenomena could be independent
of each other,[2] current experiments have found no difference in results regardless of
how it is measured:

 Inertial mass measures an object's resistance to being accelerated by a force


(represented by the relationship F = ma).
 Active gravitational mass measures the gravitational force exerted by an object.
 Passive gravitational mass measures the gravitational force exerted on an object
in a known gravitational field.
The mass of an object determines its acceleration in the presence of an applied force.
The inertia and the inertial mass describe the same properties of physical bodies at the
qualitative and quantitative level respectively, by other words, the mass quantitatively
describes the inertia. According to Newton's second law of motion, if a body of fixed
mass m is subjected to a single force F, its acceleration a is given by F/m. A body's
mass also determines the degree to which it generates or is affected by a gravitational
field. If a first body of mass mA is placed at a distance r (center of mass to center of
mass) from a second body of mass mB, each body is subject to an attractive
force Fg = GmAmB/r2, where G = 6.67×10−11 N kg−2 m2 is the "universal gravitational
constant". This is sometimes referred to as gravitational mass. [note 1] Repeated
experiments since the 17th century have demonstrated that inertial and gravitational
mass are identical; since 1915, this observation has been entailed a priori in
the equivalence principle of general relativity.
Units of mass
Further information: Orders of magnitude (mass)

The kilogram is one of the seven SI base units and one of three which is defined ad hoc (i.e. without reference
to another base unit).

The standard International System of Units (SI) unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). The


kilogram is 1000 grams (g), first defined in 1795 as one cubic decimeter of water at
the melting point of ice. However, because precise measurement of a cubic decimeter
of water at the proper temperature and pressure was difficult, in 1889 the kilogram was
redefined as the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram of cast iron, and
thus became independent of the meter and the properties of water.
However, the mass of the international prototype and its supposedly identical national
copies have been found to be drifting over time. The re-definition of the kilogram and
several other units occurred on 20 May 2019, following a final vote by the CGPM in
November 2018.[3] The new definition uses only invariant quantities of nature: the speed
of light, the caesium hyperfine frequency, and the Planck constant.[4]
Other units are accepted for use in SI:

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