How much would a person weigh on another planet?
Have you ever wondered how heavy you could be on Mars? Or Jupiter? And it can all be calculated by a simple formula.
Whether you're a science fiction fan, a space enthusiast, or one of the countless viewers who have watched astronauts land on the moon, you're probably wondering how much you'd weigh on other planets in our solar system.
First, let's understand a little bit of physics!
Weight is the combined effect of an object's mass and the force exerted on it by gravity. Mass is the resistance required for an object to change or stop during its motion. While mass is constant throughout the universe (except for some cases discussed in special relativity), your weight varies according to the gravitational forces acting on you, and these forces vary from planet to planet.
Newton's law of gravity states that any object with mass attracts other matter, and that the gravitational force is proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance separating their centers.
In other words, although gravity is linearly increasing in relation to mass, as the distance between objects increases, the mass of the object decreases exponentially with it. In calculating surface gravity, this distance refers to the distance between a person (at the surface) and the planet's center of mass. That is, the size of the planet actually has a greater relative effect on its own gravity and the weight of the surface object than its mass.
According to Newton's law of gravitation formula: F= G (Mm)/r^2)
F - the gravitational force between two objects
G - gravitational constant (6.674×10-11 N · m^2/km^2)
M - mass of the Earth (kg)
m - mass of the object (kg)
r - distance between two centers of mass (m) (i.e. radius of the planet)
Take Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system, which has 316 times the mass of the Earth. Perhaps you think you weigh 316 times more there than you do on Earth. But since Jupiter's radius is about 11 times that of Earth, its surface gravity is 1/112 times that of Earth.
Based on the above equation, the gravitational force between the Earth's surface and other celestial bodies is calculated as follows：
Pluto: 0.06
Mercury: 0.38
Mars: 0.38
Venus: 0.91
Uranus: 0.92
Earth: 1.00
Saturn: 1.06
Neptune: 1.19
Jupiter: 2.34
Based on: Weight = Mass x Surface Gravity. Your weight on Earth multiplied by the number above will calculate your weight on each planet. If your weight on Earth is 68kg, your weight on Jupiter is 159kg, on Mars is 26kg, and on Pluto is 4kg.
Although the gravity ratios of Mercury and Mars are comparable, Mars has twice the mass of Mercury. Since the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, and the diameter of Mars is 1.4 times that of Mercury, the final gravitational ratio is almost the same.And Uranus and Venus are even more exaggerated. Although Uranus has 17.8 times the mass of Venus, the diameter of Uranus is 4.2 times that of Venus, directly offsetting the difference in the mass ratio.