Feel free to test our converter between perceived weight on Earth and on the Moon, it converts automatically when you type in one of the fields. Here you can easily enter how much you weigh (on Earth) and find out how much it would feel like you weigh if you were on the Moons surface.
Our beautiful Moon with the Universe in the background
To understand what it means when we talk about how much someone "weighs" on the Moon, we must first get acquainted with the concepts of mass and weight. Mass is a physical quantity that indicates how much matter there is in an object (or a person), mass is measured in lbs. Weight on the other hand is a measure of how much gravity affects a given mass.
When we stand on a scale on Earth to find out how much we weigh, then that scale is calibrated according to the gravity on Earth so that it shows our actual mass (weight). If we take the same scale to the Moon, and if we stand on it, it would show that we weigh much less on the Moon than on Earth. This is actually wrong, because what our "Earth scale" shows on the Moon is just how much gravity on the Moon affects us in relation to the gravity we are used to on Earth. In our converter above, this is what we do, the field that shows "lbs on the Moon" could be said to represent a scale that is calibrated according to the gravity field of Earth.
What is important to remember here is that regardless of whether we are on Earth or the Moon, we consist of the same amount of matter, or in other words the same amount of mass (in lbs). It is only because the scale is calibrated according to the Earth's gravity that our "weight" is less on the Moon, if we instead calibrated the scale according to the Moon's gravity, it would show exactly the same weight as on the Earth!
Written by Steve Thompson