Weight and Mass, by Dr. John Askill, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois Mass and Weight Overview Mass is a property that is assigned to an object, the amount of matter it contains. For example, if you have a cubical container that is 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm and which is filled with water, you have a mass of one gram of water.
Weight describes the amount of force that is acting an object due to gravity.
1 kg of water weighs 9.8 Newtons on the Earth, but only 1.6 Newtons on the Moon. The Newton is the basic unit of Force, or Weight. The common everyday unit is the pound . An object that is 10 slugs on Earth is 10 slugs on the moon and everywhere else for that matter. Thus, Pounds and Newtons are both units of weight.