To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following lists describe various

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

levels between 10⁻⁵⁹ kg and 10⁵² kg. The least massive thing listed here is a graviton, and the most massive thing is the

observable universe The observable universe is a ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from these ob ...

. Typically, an object having greater mass will also have greater weight (see mass versus weight), especially if the objects are subject to the same gravitational field strength.

Units of mass

The table at right is based on the

kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially. ...

(kg), the base unit of mass in the

International System of Units The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. ...

( SI). The kilogram is the only standard unit to include an SI prefix (''kilo-'') as part of its name. The '' gram'' (10⁻³ kg) is an SI derived unit of mass. However, the ''names'' of all SI mass units are based on ''gram'', rather than on ''kilogram''; thus 10³ kg is a ''megagram'' (10⁶ g), not a *''kilokilogram''. The ''

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

'' (t) is an SI-compatible unit of mass equal to a megagram (''Mg''), or 10³ kg. The unit is in common use for masses above about 10³ kg and is often used with SI prefixes. For example, a gigagram (''Gg'') or 10⁹ g is 10³ tonnes, commonly called a ''kilotonne''.

Other units

Other units of mass are also in use. Historical units include the stone, the pound, the carat, and the

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

. For subatomic particles, physicists use the mass equivalent to the energy represented by an

electronvolt In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV, also written electron-volt and electron volt) is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating from rest through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacu ...

(eV). At the atomic level, chemists use the mass of one-twelfth of a carbon-12 atom (the dalton). Astronomers use the

mass of the sun The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass ...

().

The least massive things: below 10⁻²⁴ kg

Unlike other physical quantities, mass–energy does not have an ''a priori'' expected minimal quantity, or an observed basic quantum as in the case of

electric charge Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes charged matter to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative'' (commonly carried by protons and electrons res ...

Planck's law In physics, Planck's law describes the spectral density of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body in thermal equilibrium at a given temperature , when there is no net flow of matter or energy between the body and its environment. At ...

allows for the existence of

photons A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are Massless particle, massless ...

with arbitrarily low energies. Consequently, there can only ever be an experimental upper bound on the mass of a supposedly massless particle; in the case of the photon, this confirmed upper bound is of the order of = .

10⁻²⁴ to 10⁻¹⁸ kg

10⁻¹⁸ to 10⁻¹² kg

10⁻¹² to 10⁻⁶ kg

10⁻⁶ to 1 kg

1 kg to 10⁵ kg

10⁶ to 10¹¹ kg

10¹² to 10¹⁷ kg

10¹⁸ to 10²³ kg

10²⁴ to 10²⁹ kg

10³⁰ to 10³⁵ kg

10³⁶ to 10⁴¹ kg

The most massive things: 10⁴² kg and greater

Notes

External links

Mass units conversion calculator

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orders Of Magnitude (Mass)

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

Mass

Units of mass

Other units

The least massive things: below 10−24 kg

10−24 to 10−18 kg

10−18 to 10−12 kg

10−12 to 10−6 kg

10−6 to 1 kg

1 kg to 105 kg

106 to 1011 kg

1012 to 1017 kg

1018 to 1023 kg

1024 to 1029 kg

1030 to 1035 kg

1036 to 1041 kg

The most massive things: 1042 kg and greater

See also