What is Mass?

Mass is a property that describes how much matter an object contains. It’s like the measure of how heavy or light something is. Every object, including things we see and things we can’t see, like air, has mass.

Mass is different from weight. Weight is a measure of how strongly gravity pulls on an object, while mass stays the same no matter where you are in the universe. For example, if you take a toy car to the moon, its weight will be less because the moon has less gravity, but its mass will stay the same.
We can compare the masses of different objects using units like grams or kilograms.

A small apple might have a mass of about 100 grams, while a heavy backpack could have a mass of 5 kilograms.

Mass is important in many aspects of our lives. It affects how hard it is to move or stop an object. For example, pushing a heavy box requires more force than pushing a light one. Mass is also related to inertia, which is the tendency of an object to resist changes in motion. Objects with more mass have more inertia, meaning they are harder to move or stop.

In science, mass is a fundamental property and plays a role in understanding the behaviour of objects. It helps us explain why things fall to the ground when dropped and why objects move in certain ways.

So, remember, mass is the measure of how much matter is in an object. It tells us how heavy or light something is and affects how objects move and behave.