Question

An astronaut on the moon weighs 1/6 of his weight on earth. If he weighs 186 pounds on earth, how much would he weigh on the moon?

Answer 1

Weight of a body is equal to the gravitational force experienced by the body. When an astronaut is on the moon, the gravitational force on the astronaut is less than that of the earth. To find the weight of the astronaut on the moon divides his weight on earth by 6.

Complete step-by-step solution:
Let us first understand what is meant by the weight of a body.
According to Newton’s law of gravitation, every object in the universe exerts a force on another object. This force is called the force of gravity. The force of gravity is always attractive in nature. This means that one body always pulls another body towards itself.
Therefore, we can understand how we are living on earth. The earth exerts a force of gravity on every object that is within its gravitational field. Therefore, these objects experience a force of attraction towards the earth.
The gravitational force between two bodies is given as $F=\dfrac{G{{m}_{1}}{{m}_{2}}}{{{r}^{2}}}$, where ${{m}_{1}}$ and ${{m}_{2}}$ are the masses of the two bodies and r is the distance between them. G is the gravitational constant.
Suppose, the mass
Now, the weight of a body is equal to the gravitational force exerted by the body by another body. In the case of earth and an object on earth, the weight of that object is equal to the gravitational force exerted by the earth on the object.
Similarly, when the same object is on moron, the gravitational force exerted by the moon is less than the gravitational force exerted by earth. Hence, the weight of the object decreases.
It is given that the weight of the astronaut on the moon is 1/6 times his weight on earth. It is also given that his weight on earth is 186 pounds.
Therefore, his weight on the moon will be $\dfrac{186}{6}=36pounds$.

Note: Note that a unit pound is a unit of mass. However, in this question, it is used for force i.e. weight. When the astronaut goes from earth to the moon, his mass remains the same but the gravitational force changes.