Mechanical Design for the Stage

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The Force to Accelerate Mass: F_acceleration

Overview

Mass is a measure of the quantity of matter in an object. Mass could be related directly to the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons in an object (or whatever fundamental particles are appropriate today), if those could easily be counted. The mass of a given object is a fixed value, a constant, completely independent of its location: on earth, on the moon, in outer space. In contrast, the weight of an object depends on the action of gravity on its mass, and this very much changes as it travels around the universe. Theatre of course is still earthbound, and the distinction between mass and weight might seem to be unimportant, but these differences are at the heart of both Newton’s second ...