mass

Also known as weight

Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. In modern physics, it is generally defined as the strength of an object's gravitational attraction to other bodies - as measured by an observer moving along at the same speed.

AI overview

Mass is a fundamental property that all physical objects possess, defined by how strongly they attract other objects through gravity. It matters because this gravitational attraction shapes how objects interact with each other and move through space.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Physical quantity.conserved: yes
Physical quantity.name: Mass
Physical quantity.image: Poids fonte 2 kg 03 (cropped).jpg
Physical quantity.caption: A cast iron weight used for balances
Physical quantity.unit: kilogram (kg)
Physical quantity.otherunits: pound (lb), ounce (oz)
Physical quantity.symbols: m
Physical quantity.baseunits: kg
Physical quantity.extensive: yes

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: 2kg Gewicht freigeschnitten.jpg

Show 4 more facts

Stack Exchange tag: physics.stackexchange.com/tags/mass
Commons category: Mass (physical property)
equivalent class: schema.org/Mass
quantity symbol (string): m

Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~47 min read

Article

26 sections

Contents

Phenomena
Units of mass
History of units of mass
Definition
Weight vs. mass
Inertial vs. gravitational mass
Origin
Pre-Newtonian concepts
Weight as an amount
Planetary motion
Galilean free fall
Mass as distinct from weight
Newtonian mass
Newton's cannonball
Universal gravitational mass
Inertial mass
Atomic masses
In relativity
Special relativity
General relativity
In quantum physics
Tachyonic particles and imaginary (complex) mass
See also
Notes
References
External links

It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementary particles, theoretically with the same amount of matter, have nonetheless different masses. Mass in modern physics has multiple definitions which are conceptually distinct, but physically equivalent.