Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: An example problem

mass and matter

mass is the measure of matter.

If you have a kilogram of mass, that mass may be made of different kinds of matter---a kilogram of water, a kilogram of steel, a kilogram of any kind of matter, but they all have a mass of a kilogram. So mass and matter are often used interchangeably because you can't have one without the other.

Mass is a property of all matter. If you put a mass in a gravitational field you get a weight. But all matter has mass, even in weightless space. Mass is defined as the amount of resistance to accelleration exhibited by a piece of matter. In order to accellerate a mass you must exert a force, etc.

Read Newton's laws, you can't really talk physics without them. You are fortunate in that you seem to have mastered basic algebra, so it should not be too difficult for you.

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