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How heavy is Earth and how much weight could it sustain before caving in?
Herman D’Hondt
Mascot, Australia
Let’s start by realising that there is a difference between mass and weight. Mass is an inherent property of things and reflects how much “stuff” there is in something. Weight, on the other hand, is the force an object feels under the influence of gravity.
Thanks to Albert Einstein’s insights, we now know that gravity is equivalent to acceleration, so an accelerated mass will experience weight because of that. Mass is expressed in kilograms, weight in newtons (N), or kg × m/s2…
