Question

Can a body have mass but no weight? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer 1

Hint: Mass of a body is the amount of matter contained in an object. The weight of a body is the force extended on the body by gravity. Weight depends on gravity. Different planets have different values of acceleration due to gravity.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand what mass and weight of the body exactly means.
Mass: Mass is defined as the amount of matter, particles, atoms contained in a body. Mass of a body is also responsible for the strength of its gravitational attraction that the body will experience. The SI unit of mass is kilogram. It is denoted as kg.

Weight: The weight of the body is the force exerted by the gravitational pull of the Earth. We know that the value of acceleration due to gravity is not constant. The value of acceleration due to gravity is on an average taken as $9.8m{s^{ - 2}}$ . It is denoted as g.Now for different planets the value of acceleration due to gravity is different. So, for a body to have no weight, the acceleration due gravity must be zero.

Hence, it is possible that a body can have mass but no weight.

Additional information:
In the International Space Station, the weight of any object is zero. When a body is in free fall, the weight is zero as the body is falling with the same acceleration as the acceleration due to gravity.

Note: When the acceleration due to gravity decreases, the weight of the body also decreases. For a body having weight will always have some mass. Also, the weight of a body is proportional to its mass and to the acceleration due to gravity. Mass of a body cannot be zero.