Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
May 1894
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1894natur..50...30.&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 50, Issue 1280, pp. 30-31 (1894).
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
I HAVE no intention of reopening a discussion on the advisability and necessity of carefully separating in our minds those two notions, the weight of a body and its mass, which to me (and to a great many others) are now so completely distinct. The subject has already been treated of in these pages. Hence, in reply to the letter signed ``K.'' I shall be very brief. The mass of a body is simply the quantity of matter which it contains; its weight is the force with which the earth pulls the body towards the centre of the earth; this force varies slightly at different points on the earth's surface, varies very much both when the body is removed outwards from the earth or inwards towards its centre, and would be nothing at all at the centre; the weight would be practically nothing if the body were removed a few millions of miles away from the earth. But through all these changes, and through all mere changes of place, the mass of the body is perfectly unaltered. Weight is a mere contingent property of mass, logically arid physically distinct from it; a more contingent property than shape; for, while a body must have some shape, it need have no weight. The terms weight of the earth, weight of Jupiter, weight of the sun, &c., are absolutely ridiculous. The mass of the earth is acted upon by no force whatsoever except the attraction of the sun and the disturbing attractions of the moon and the planets. The earth attracts itself with no force; it has no weight. So much for positive statement.
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