A person has a weight of 700 N on Earth where g = 10 N/kg. The table shows g on two other bodies. Body g / N/kg Mars 3.7 Jupiter 25 What is the difference b...
Question 1 Report
A person has a weight of 700 N on Earth where g = 10 N/kg. The table shows g on two other bodies.
| Body | g / N/kg |
|---|---|
| Mars | 3.7 |
| Jupiter | 25 |
What is the difference between the person's weight on Jupiter and their weight on Mars?
Answer Details
The key to this problem is recognising that the person's mass stays constant regardless of location. Since weight = mass × gravitational field strength (W = mg), the mass can be found from the Earth data: m = W / g = 700 / 10 = 70 kg.
With the mass known, the weight on each body is calculated using that body's value of g. On Jupiter: W = 70 × 25 = 1750 N. On Mars: W = 70 × 3.7 = 259 N. The difference is 1750 − 259 = 1491 N.
A common error is to subtract the two values of g and then multiply by the Earth weight, which gives a meaningless result. Another pitfall is forgetting to find the mass first and instead trying to scale the Earth weight directly by a ratio of g values for the wrong calculation. Always extract the mass first, then apply each planet's g separately before finding the difference.
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