weight (thing)

The amount of force exerted by a massive body being kept stationary in an accelerated frame of reference (thus, a human being in free fall feels weightless). Weight can refer to a vector force, in the same direction as the acceleration, or to a scalar, the magnitude of the vector.

Weight can result from:

• A reaction to thrust caused by the conversion of some other energy to kinetic energy (i.e. from a rocket),
• A centripetal force diverting a mass from a straight path of motion (such as the outside wall of a centrifuge capsule),
• Something (such as the Earth) blocking the path of centripetal motion,
• Gravity, which is really all of the above.