Ratio of inertial mass to gravitational mass
1:1
Thank you very much bobpursley. Actually in my physics reference book there was two answers for this question hence I was confused but you just cleared my doubt. Are you a teacher?
yes. Inertial mass and gravitational mass are measured differently, and for many years there was a debate on the ratio, but in the end, it is the same quantity.
A huge thank you again. Would you answer this question what the momentum actually is?
momentum vector P = m V
where m is the scalar mass
and V is the vector velocity.
The ratio of inertial mass to gravitational mass is an important concept in physics known as the equivalence principle. According to this principle, the inertial mass and gravitational mass of an object are equal. This means that the acceleration experienced by an object in a gravitational field depends only on the gravitational mass of the object, not on its inertial mass.
To understand how to calculate this ratio, let's break it down step by step:
1. Inertial Mass: Inertial mass is a measure of an object's resistance to changes in its motion. It is usually denoted as "m" and is defined by Newton's second law of motion: F = ma, where F is the force applied to the object and a is its acceleration. In this equation, the ratio of F to a gives us the value of m.
2. Gravitational Mass: Gravitational mass, on the other hand, is a measure of the gravitational force experienced by an object. It is usually denoted as "mg" (where g is the acceleration due to gravity) and is given by the formula: mg = Fg, where Fg is the force of gravity acting on the object.
3. Equivalence Principle: The equivalence principle states that the inertial mass (m) of an object is equal to its gravitational mass (mg). This means that the ratio of inertial mass to gravitational mass is simply m/mg = 1.
In other words, the ratio of inertial mass to gravitational mass is always equal to 1, according to the equivalence principle.