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Gravitational "weight" is the force created when a mass is acted upon by a gravitational field and the object is not allowed to free-fall, but is supported or retarded by a mechanical force, such as the surface of a planet. Such a force constitutes weight. [2] This force can be added to by any other kind of force.
This is convenient because one pound mass exerts one pound force due to gravity. Note, however, unlike the other systems the force unit is not equal to the mass unit multiplied by the acceleration unit [11] —the use of Newton's second law, F = m ⋅ a, requires another factor, g c, usually taken to be 32.174049 (lb⋅ft)/(lbf⋅s 2).
The theorem tells us how different parts of the mass distribution affect the gravitational force measured at a point located a distance r 0 from the center of the mass distribution: [13] The portion of the mass that is located at radii r < r 0 causes the same force at the radius r 0 as if all of the mass enclosed within a sphere of radius r 0 ...
The most common definition of weight found in introductory physics textbooks defines weight as the force exerted on a body by gravity. [1] [12] This is often expressed in the formula W = mg, where W is the weight, m the mass of the object, and g gravitational acceleration.
The g-force or gravitational force equivalent is a mass-specific force (force per unit mass), expressed in units of standard gravity (symbol g or g 0, not to be confused with "g", the symbol for grams). It is used for sustained accelerations, that cause a perception of weight.
If a first body of mass m A is placed at a distance r (center of mass to center of mass) from a second body of mass m B, each body is subject to an attractive force F g = Gm A m B /r 2, where G = 6.67 × 10 −11 N⋅kg −2 ⋅m 2 is the "universal gravitational constant". This is sometimes referred to as gravitational mass.
The slug is a derived unit of mass in a weight-based system of measures, most notably within the British Imperial measurement system and the United States customary measures system. Systems of measure either define mass and derive a force unit or define a base force and derive a mass unit [ 1 ] (cf. poundal , a derived unit of force in a mass ...
[10] [11] Moreover, words which are synonymous in everyday speech are not so in physics: force is not the same as power or pressure, for example, and mass has a different meaning than weight. [12] [13]: 150 The physics concept of force makes quantitative the everyday idea of a push or a pull. Forces in Newtonian mechanics are often due to ...