Material quantity is measured by mass, often in kilograms, and by moles, which represent 6 x 10^23 units of something. The amount of material remains constant unless atoms are lost or gained. Weight can vary depending on the planet’s gravity or when approaching the speed of light.
Material quantity has to do with how much of something there is in a given place. Colloquially, it is measured using pounds or kilograms, but many scientists prefer mass, which more objectively describes the amount of material in a given sample. Since mass is usually related to weight in everyday situations, kilograms are also used to measure mass.
When chemists refer to the material amount of particles in a sample, they often use moles, an amount that refers to about 6 x 1023 units of something, usually atoms or molecules. The large number is known as Avogadro’s number or Avogodro’s constant, named after the Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro, who realized, in the early 19th century, that the volume of a gas is proportional to the material amount of particles inside it. of the gas. Avogodro’s number is defined as the number of atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon.
As long as a system does not lose or gain atoms, whether through external exchange or nuclear fission/fusion, it will keep the same amount of material indefinitely. There is a possibility that protons, which make up the nucleus of atoms, decay spontaneously after an extraordinarily long period of time, but this has not been proven and there is little evidence for it.
The same amount of material can have different weights depending on which planet it is near. For example, on Jupiter, you would weigh tens of times more than on Earth, so extreme it would break your spine. In contrast, on the surface of the Moon, gravity is about 1/4 that of Earth, so your weight is about 1/4, even though your mass (and the material amount of particles in your body) remains the same.
Another case where the amount of material can be constant while the weight fluctuates is when something is moving very close to the speed of light. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, when something moves extremely fast, approaching the speed of light, it gains weight. This is why a particle with non-zero mass can never move at the speed of light: as its speed increases, its mass also increases, thus making acceleration more difficult. The energy requirements to continue accelerating to the speed of light are infinite, greater than the total amount of energy in the universe.
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