Wonders of our Weight


Welcome space cadets! I hope you found your trip to Mars to be an enjoyable one! We are going to continue on our mission today to find out what your weight would be if you were to travel to another planet in our solar system. You are provided some websites that will help guide you along on your discovery. Once you have found all of your weights, compile them into a line graph and see what happens when gravity is taken into consideration! NOSE appreciates your hardwork!

Your Task:

Before you can figure out your weight on other planets, it's important that you understand gravity, mass, and weight. Clicking on the link below will take you to a website that will help guide you on your way.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/index.html (The Exploratorium Website)
In order to figure out your weight you will need to know what the gravity factor of each planet is. The table below includes these gravity factors for each of the other eight planets in our solar system.

Copy the gravity factors onto this chart.
Next, write your current weight on Earth into the chart.
Based on what you have just learned and what you know about the planets, use your calculator to multiply each gravity factor by your current weight to find your "new" weight on each planet.
Graph your results on graph paper. Create a bar graph that has the planets listed on the x-axis and weight on the y-axis. Be sure to include Earth as one of the planets even though you did not calculate a gravity factor for it on your chart. Graph your current weight for Earth and then graph all of your "new" weights for the other planets.
Now that you have completed your job, use the data you have gathered to help answer the following questions:

Identify a planet that has a similar gravitational attraction to that of Earth. How did you find this?

If your doctor told your aunt she was 30 lbs. overweight and she currently weights 175 lbs., at what planet would she be close to the ideal weight her doctor would like her to be?