Question

What is the weight, in pounds, of a 185-kg object on jupiter? express the weight numerically in pounds?

Answer 1

Befroe showing a numercial answer, It is necessary to clarify that pounds is not a unit of weight. Pounds is a unit of mass.

Mass is a property of matter which indicates the amount of matter (atoms of certain kind) that the object has. The mass of an object does not change whenever the object changes of environment. It is the same in water, on the air, on Jupiter, the Earth, Venus, the Moon. Any where.

On the other hand, weight is the product of mass times the acceleration of gravity. Therefore, weight is different from mass and it changes depending on the place.

To find the mass in pounds of a 185 kg object, you have to make a conversion of units.

The conversion factor is 1 kg = 2.2046 pounds ⇒ 1 = 2.2046 pounds / kg.

Therefore, 185 kg = 185 kg × 2.2046 pounds / kg = 407.851 pounds = 407.851 lb ← this is the mass in pounds.

To find the weight you had to search for the gravitational acceleration in Jupiter and calcuate it with the formula weight = mass × acceleration of gravity.

You find the value for acceleration of gravity in Jupiter  in internet as 24.79 m/s².

Weight = 185 kg × 24.79 /s² = 4,586 kg × m/ s² = 4,586 N.

There is a force unit in disuse called kiloponds. One kilopond equals 9.8 N. Hence, you can convert the weight 4,586 N to kiloponds in this way:

4,586 N × 1 kilopond / 9.8 N ≈ 468 kiloponds or 468,000 ponds ← weight