[Physics] the ‘weight’ (not mass!) of the Earth

earthmassnewtonian-gravityweight

I am asking what might be the weight (not mass!) of the earth. My weight is the amount of force exerted on me by Earth (say 600N). So, weight of earth should be amount of force exerted on Earth by me (600N)? And it also seems to be changing from person to person. Where am I wrong?

Best Answer

It seems you are trying to apply weight inconsistently.

We generally define weight as "force on an object due to gravity."

You cannot really define weight of an individual object. When defining weight we usually are implicitly talking about the objects weight on Earth. We can also find the weight of objects on the moon for example. Objects with the same mass will obviously have different weight in different gravity.

This is because gravity is an attractive force between two objects. The question of "What is the weight of Earth?" has no obvious answer, because generally when we don't specify where, we mean on Earth. The question would then read "What is the weight of Earth on Earth?", which is obviously nonsense.

In your example, you could ask the question "What is the Earth's weight on me?", and then it would be 600 N. The weight of the Earth for someone heavier would be more.

It's not really standard to talk about the Earth's weight on small objects either, which is why it may seem odd to consider that.

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