Inertia

Inertia is the property of a mass which resists change from its state of rest or
motion.
 The inertia of an object refers to the reluctance of the object to start
moving if it is stationary in the first instance or the reluctance of the
object to stop moving if it is moving in the first instance.
 When a body of matter is stationary, it needs a force to make it start
moving. The bigger the mass, the bigger the force needed. We say
that masses have inertia: a reluctance to start moving.
Mass
The mass (m) of a body of matter is quantitative measure of its inertia, i.e., its
resistance to a change in the state of rest or motion of the body, when a force is
applied.

 SI unit of mass is the kilogram (kg). It is a scalar quantity.

 The greater the mass of a body, the smaller the rate of change in
motion.
Note:

Matter is the material substance that constitutes the observable universe and,
together with energy, forms the basis of all objective phenomena. The basic
building blocks of matter are atoms. The atoms themselves comprise of nucleus
and electrons.
Amount Of Substance
Although mass is defined in terms of inertia, it is conventionally interpreted as:
The mass (m) of a body of matter is a measure of its amount of substance in the
body.

 Under ordinary circumstances, matter does not change. Hence, the

amount of substance in the body can be assumed to be
quantitatively equal to its mass. If the amount of substance divides
itself, we can assume that its mass also halved.
 Mass can be measured with a beam balance or an electronic
balance.

Gravitational field &

Gravitational field strength
Gravitational Force
Any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force. This spectacle is
called the gravitational attraction. This force of attraction is known as
the gravitational force or force due to gravity.
A force field is a region in which a body experiences a force as a result of the
presence of some other body or bodies.

 A force field is thus a method of representing the way in which

bodies are able to influence each other.
Gravitational Field
A gravitational field is a region in which a mass experiences a force due to
gravitational attraction.
 A gravitational field is a region of space surrounding a body that has
the property of mass. In this region, any other body that has mass
will experience a force of attraction.
 All bodies near the surface of Earth experience gravitation attraction
exerted by Earth.
 You experience weight on Earth due to the Earth exerting
gravitational force on you. The formula to calculate weight is stated
below.
Gravitational Field Strength
ALL objects set up a gravitational field around itself. If a second body is placed at
distance X from the first body, it will experience a gravitational attractive force
towards the first body.

The gravitational field strength (g) at any point in a gravitational field is the
gravitational force per unit mass exerted on any body placed at that point.
 Weight
All bodies of matter near the surface of Earth experience gravitational force due to
Earth’s gravitational field. This gravitational pull is commonly referred to as the weight.
The weight (W) of a body is the gravitational force exerted on it by Earth.
 SI unit of weight is newton (N). It is a vector quantity.
 Its direction is towards the centre of the Earth or commonly referred to as
vertically downwards.
 Weight is measured using a newton-meter.
 Your weight does change slightly from place to place on Earth – at the
north pole, one would weigh about 3 N heavier than one near the equator.
This is due to the gravitational field strength being slightly DIFFERENT at
different places on Earth. Normally, you neglect this difference in your
calculations. (If you want to ask why heavier at the poles, it is due to the
Earth being slightly flattened at the poles.)

Mass Weight

It is amount of substance in a body It is the pull of gravity on the body

Scalar quantity Vector quantity

SI unit is kilogram (kg) SI unit is newton (N)

Constant under ordinary circumstances Changes and depends on its location

Measured using a beam balance or electronic balance Measured using a spring or newton-meter

Note:

When a body is placed in a region of free space far away from any massive bodies, it
experiences no gravitational pull and thus are considered weightless. When this same
body is now placed near the surface of the Earth, the body experiences the pull of gravity.
This shows that the weight must come from an external source. Hence, it is an external
force.

Example
The gravitational field strength on the surface of the Moon is one-sixth that of
Earth’s. For a body of 60 kg, deduce its mass and weight on the Moon?

Density
Volume (V) is defined as the amount of space occupied by a three-dimensional object as
measured in cubic units.
 SI unit of volume is metres cube (m3). It is a scalar quantity.
Density (ρ) is defined as the mass (m) of a substance per unit volume.
 SI unit of density is kilograms per metre cube (kg m-3). It is a scalar
quantity.
 Another common unit of density is g cm−3.
 Note: 1000 kgm−3 =1 gcm−3
Example
A block of concrete with dimensions 0.4 m, 0.3 m and 0.1 m has a density
of 2500 kg m−32500 kgm−3. Calculate the mass of the block.