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In the physical sciences, weight is a measurement of the gravitational force acting on an object.[1] Near the surface of the Earth, the acceleration due to gravity is approximately constant; this means that an object's weight is roughly proportional to its mass. Acceleration and free-fall can also depend on the inertia of the object. The si unit of force (newtons) can also determine the outcome. In commerce and in many other applications, weight means the same as mass as that term is used in physics.[1][2] In modern scientific usage, however, weight and mass are fundamentally different quantities mass is an intrinsic property of matter, whereas weight is a force that results from the action of gravity on matter it measures how strongly gravity pulls on that matter. However, the recognition of this difference is, historically, a relatively recent development and in many everyday situations the word "weight" continues to be used when "mass" is meant. For example, we say that an object "weighs one kilogram", even though the kilogram is a unit of mass. The distinction between mass and weight is unimportant for many practical purposes because the strength of gravity is very similar everywhere on the surface of the Earth. In such a constant gravitational field, the gravitational force exerted on an object (its weight) is directly proportional to its mass. So, if object A weighs, say, 10 times as much as object B, then object A's mass is 10 times that of object B. This means that an object's mass can be measured indirectly by its weight (for conversion formulas see below). For example, when we buy a bag of sugar we can measure its weight (how hard it presses down on the scales) and be sure that this will give a good indication of the quantity that we are actually interested in, which is the mass of sugar in the bag.
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