Weight is defined as which of the following?

• A. Weight is the mass of an object.
• B. Weight is a measure of gravitational force pulling down on an object.
• C. Weight is the kinetic energy of an object.
• D. Weight is the resistance to a change in motion.

Answer: (B)

Weight is the gravitational force acting on a mass, pulling it toward the center of the planet. This force is what you feel as heaviness and is calculated as W = m g, with m being the object's mass and g the acceleration due to gravity. Because gravity varies from place to place, weight changes with location even though the mass stays the same. That’s why weight is a measure of the gravitational pull on the object. The other ideas describe different things: mass is the amount of matter in an object, kinetic energy is energy of motion, and resistance to a change in motion is inertia.