Question

How much would a $50\,kg$ object weigh on Mercury (gravity on Mercury is $3.59\,{m}/{{{s}^{2}}}$).
A. $13.9\,N$
B. $179.5\,N$
C. $310.5\,N$
D. $490.0\,N$

Answer 1

In order to find the solution of the above question, we will be studying the relation of mass and gravity. We will simply use the equation to find out the weight of an object.Mass and Weight are totally different from each other. Both of them are two different things. Weight is the force of gravity exerted on an object whereas mass of an object is the measure of inertia of that object.

Complete step by step answer:
Another name of the force due to the gravity of the planet is weight. It is a force that acts at all times on all objects near the planet’s surface. The planet pulls on all the objects with a force of gravity downwards towards the center of the planet.Now we know that the weight of any object is only due to the gravitational pull of the planet. Therefore the formulae for weight is
$Weight=mass\times gravity$
$\Rightarrow W=mg$

As it is already given in the question that the mass of the object is $50\,kg$. We also know that the gravity on Mercury is $3.59\dfrac{m}{{{s}^{2}}}$. Therefore,
W=(50kg)\left( 3.59\dfrac{m}{{{s}^{2}}} \right) \\\ \Rightarrow W=179.5\,kg\dfrac{m}{{{s}^{2}}} \\\ \therefore W=179.5\,N \\\
Therefore, the weight of an object of mass $50\,kg$ is $179.5\,N$ on Mercury and hence the correct answer is option B.

Note: It is very important to note here that the weight we calculated is having a unit of Newton as weight can also be defined as the force exerted by the gravitational pull of a planet on the object and the unit of force is Newton. It is also important to put the value of gravity correctly in the calculations as it is the gravity of Mercury and not that of Earth’s.