Question

It’s the year 2078, and you’re traveling from Earth to the Moon. To determine how much fuel you need for the rocket ship, you measure your mass upon boarding. When you land on the Moon, your mass hasn’t changed. Your weight, however, has changed. You feel lighter because the acceleration due to gravity is lower.

A. Mass
B. Volume
C. Density
D. Weight

Answer 1

Your mass remains constant whether you are on Earth or the Moon because it is the amount of matter in your body, but your weight changes due to the difference in the gravitational acceleration on the two celestial bodies. Specifically, since the Moon's gravitational acceleration is about one-sixth of Earth's, you would weigh significantly less on the Moon.

Step-by-step explanation:

When traveling from Earth to the Moon, a key distinction to understand is between mass and weight. Your mass is the amount of matter in your body and remains constant regardless of where you are, be it on Earth, the Moon, or elsewhere in space. On the other hand, your weight is the force exerted on your mass by the local gravitational field, which varies from one celestial body to another.

On Earth, the gravitational acceleration is approximately 9.80 m/s², whereas on the Moon, it's about 1.625 m/s², which is significantly smaller. This difference means that you would feel lighter on the Moon because the force of gravity acting on your mass there is less. If an object weighs six times more on Earth than on the Moon, a person weighing 180 pounds on Earth would weigh approximately 30 pounds on the Moon.