Weight and mass

The weight W of a body can be measured by the equal and opposite

force necessary to prevent the downward acceleration; that is M . The g

same body placed on the surface of the Moon has the same mass, but,
as the Moon has a mass of about  /  times that of Earth and a radius of
1
81

just 0.27 that of Earth, the body on the lunar surface has a weight of
only  /  its Earth weight, as the Apollo program astronauts
1
6

demonstrated. Passengers and instruments in orbiting satellites are

in free fall. They experience weightless conditions even though their
masses remain the same as on Earth.

Equations (1) and (2) can be used to derive Kepler’s third law for the
case of circular planetary orbits. By using the expression for the
acceleration A in equation (1) for the force of gravity for
the planet GM M /R  divided by the planet’s mass M , the following
P S
2
P

equation, in which M  is the mass of the Sun, is

S

obtained: 

Kepler’s very important second law depends only on the fact that the
force between two bodies is along the line joining them.

Newton was thus able to show that all three of Kepler’s

observationally derived laws follow mathematically from the
assumption of his own laws of motion and gravity. In all observations
of the motion of a celestial body, only the product of G and the mass
can be found. Newton first estimated the magnitude of G by assuming
Earth’s average mass density to be about 5.5 times that
of water (somewhat greater than Earth’s surface rock density) and by
calculating Earth’s mass from this. Then, taking M  and r  as Earth’s
E E

mass and radius, respectively, the value of G was 

which numerically comes close to the accepted value of 6.6743 ×
10  m  s  kg , first directly measured by Henry Cavendish.
−11 3 −2 −1

Comparing equation (5) for Earth’s surface acceleration g with

the R /T  ratio for the planets, a formula for the ratio of the Sun’s
3 2

mass M  to Earth’s mass M  was obtained in terms of known

S E
quantities, R  being the radius of Earth’s
E

orbit: 

The motions of the moons of Jupiter (discovered by Galileo) around

Jupiter obey Kepler’s laws just as the planets do around the Sun.
Thus, Newton calculated that Jupiter, with a radius 11 times larger
than Earth’s, was 318 times more massive than Earth but only  /  as
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4

dense.