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Lose Weight? Lose Mass!

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Uploaded by on May 6, 2009

Weight and mass are not the same, but the confusion about how and when to use these terms is.

well ingrained in our society. This video is a short explanation on why the term "Losing

Weight" isn't really accurate. What you want to do, really, is to lose mass.

For more information, resources, comments and more fun experiment videos, visit:

http://www.smarterthanthat.com/physics/losing-weight-losing-mass/

Narrator: mooeypoo
"Houston Mission Control" voice: Daniel Greenberg

Picture Sources (Flickr, Creative Commons):
I heart Nerds T Shirt http://www.flickr.com/photos/elvissa/880588709/
Scale http://www.flickr.com/photos/restlessglobetrotter/2929270640/
hamburger http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesswebb/2633566137/
obese dog http://www.flickr.com/photos/34428760@N03/3202436425/
lean dog http://www.flickr.com/photos/draplin/912213752/
pyramid http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2223726960/
sky scraper http://www.flickr.com/photos/nogood/220232524/
jumping off the roof http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbence/93988862/
elevator free fall http://www.flickr.com/photos/bass_nroll/2215862793/
rollercoaster http://www.flickr.com/photos/mprinke/1139986131/
gym http://www.flickr.com/photos/abraj/181196330/
veggies http://www.flickr.com/photos/valjk/634696442/
obesity http://www.flickr.com/photos/combinedmedia/3067501298/
iron man http://www.flickr.com/photos/sscusp/242103879/
big man with coke http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatmandy/165144643/
weight loss http://www.flickr.com/photos/vernonwhite/3327754571/
baby cringe http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigforsyth/2384364393/
skydiving http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogap/423485388/
leaner http://www.flickr.com/photos/christinielsen/97438813/
exercise http://www.flickr.com/photos/n8kowald/1467191600/

Music taken from http://www.freeplaymusic.com
Video segments from Apollo 13 (Universal Pictures, 1995)

  • likes, 2 dislikes

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Uploader Comments (smarterthanthat)

  • Cool Video. I've gotten lean over the past year from weigh lifting. I've stayed the same mass, I just take up less space because I am denser!

  • Yay, good for you, ayk1987, You've gotten leaner *and* scienc'ier! ;)

  • You're back! And covering very topical topic--I'm trying to lose mass right now.

  • Right in time for the pre-summer mass-loss craze! Good luck :)

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All Comments (23)

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  • Holla! Have you tried intellectus 424 diet (do a search on google)? Ive heard some unbelivable things about it and my buddy lost crazy amounts of weight with it.

  • @Gintable and @danno1111 you are both correct, I bleeped up by calling it "force of gravity". It is, indeed, the acceleration due to gravity. My intention, though, was to say that the force of gravity affects your weight (the force), I just didn't explain myself as accurately as you point out I should have. I hope the general intent is clear, though, and thanks for the comments!

  • An objects weight is the product of its mass and the local gravitational field.

    They were incorrect by using the term "force of gravity"...weight IS the force of gravity.

    danno1111 is correct, but gravitational field strength is not necessarily equal to a body's acceleration. Only when no other forces act on a body is its acceleration equal to the local gravitational field strength.

  • An objects weight is the product of its mass and the *acceleration* due to gravity, not the "force" of gravity...

    Also, strictly speaking, the astronaut in orbit around the earth isn't weightless, since the force due to gravity is still acting on his body (albeit, at some fraction of what it is on the Earth's surface).

  • thanks :D

  • Funny

  • think about it

    what else could denser mean?

  • Why not? Muscle is more dense than fat? I lost fat and gained muscle.

  • wouldnt brag about being denser lol

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