Answer
Weight is a dangerous concept to work with: first, weight is a force and should therefore be expressed in Newtons, not kilograms. The weight of one body is the force required to hold it stationary in the gravitational field of another body. On earth we convert that force by means of the gravitational acceleration at the earth’s surface (9.81 m/s2) and we then obtain a number in kilograms. But actually weight is a force.
And so we come to a second reason why the concept of weight is not universally applicable: you therefore need a gravitational field to give a body a weight.
Suppose you put the earth on scales (which measure the force) on Mars: there the earth will have a certain weight. If you put the earth on a scale on the moon, the earth will also have a weight there, but that will be a different value than on Mars. And if you put the Earth somewhere far away from all the other masses in the universe, in a place where there is supposedly no net gravitation, the weight of the Earth there will be zero. So, what is “the” weight of the earth?
On the other hand, the earth does have mass everywhere, and it is the same everywhere, even in the absence of gravity. Mass is a property of the Earth itself. The earth only gains weight in the gravitational field of another mass, and the weight depends on that other mass. Weight is therefore not an exclusive property of the earth, but also of where you measure it.
So I would definitely avoid talking about “weight” when talking about the earth.
Answered by
prof.dr. Paul Hellings
Department of Mathematics, Fac. IIW, KU Leuven
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
.