Question

Which of these objects would have greater mass, object A that weighs 50N on earth or object B with a weight of 50N on the moon?

Answer 1

Object B (The object on the Moon)

Explanation:

We're asked to find which of two objects has a greater mass, given that they have the same weight on two different celestial bodies.

Recall Newton's second law, which states

`sumvecF = mveca`

We need to know the magnitude of the acceleration `g` for each body. We know earth's is `9.81` `"m/s"^2`, and the Moon's is `1.624` `"m/s"^2` (from Internet or any resource).

Earth:

We have

• `sumF = 50` `"N"` (weight)

• `a = 9.81` `"m/s"^2`

Thus,

`m = (sumF)/a = color(red)(5.10` `color(red)("g"`

Moon:

We have

• `sumF = 50` `"N"` (weight)

• `a = 1.624` `"m/s"^2`

So

`m = (sumF)/a = color(blue)(30.8` `color(blue)("g"`

Thus, object `sfcolor(blue)("B"` has the greater mass.

Answer 2

B

Explanation:

Intuitively, since gravity on the moon is less than that on Earth, it takes more mass on the moon to produce the same force.