Outcomes

In this course we will explore the units of mass but before we dive into the nitty gritty of this topic, do you understand what mass is?

The amount of mass present in an object will make that object either light or heavy.

Is mass the same as weight?

This is a very good question! Many people use the word mass and weight interchangeably but they actually have very different meanings!

You already know that mass is the amount of matter in a particle, object or body, so what is weight?

Watch the YouTube video below which clearly explains this important difference.

Badzilla. (2020). The difference between mass and weight (Standard YouTube licence)

How is mass measured?

Using the metric system, the most common units used to measure mass are:

• Milligram (mg)
• Gram (g)
• Kilogram (kg)

The gram is the metric base unit for mass.

It's important to understand what the prefixes mean in units of measurements: [edit: please change one-thousandths to one-thousandth (singular) in the artwork below]

Using the information provided above, this means that:

• 1000 mg = 1 g or to put this another way: 1 mg = 0.001 g
• 1000 g = 1 kg or to put this another way 1 g = 0.001 kg

Understanding what the prefixes mean will assist you when converting one unit of measure to another.

Watch the YouTube video which explains clearly how mass is measured and how to convert between the different units of mass.

ClickView. (2022). What unit is mass measured in? (Standard YouTube licence)

Test your understanding of what has been covered so far, by answering the questions in the short quiz below.