Question

What gives something its mass?

Answer 1

It's gravity density, volume and god.

Answer 2

Not a God

Answer 3

if u think that is god then prove it

Answer 4

i was kidding, It's gravity density, and volume

Answer 5

ok

Answer 6

Oh god.

Answer 7

Things have mass but the weight depends on the force of gravity where the mass is at? I'm no physicist but aren't mass and energy interchangeable, according to E=mc2?

Answer 8

I am not a physicist either - but haven't those who are physicists spent the last eighteen months patiently explaining to the rest of us that their beloved Higgs boson is reason everything in the universe has mass...?

Answer 9

Well almost blues but not fully ^^ (not i try but i might just say something a bit wrong becuase it hard to explain)
You see the that give things mass is the Higgs field (Higgs field ≠ Higgs boson)
But what is mass firstly? well best answer i know so far is that particels only are MASSLESS if they ALWAYS travel at the speed of light, (remember the foton). So we now define mass as particels/objects/thingys that does not move at the speed of light but they also have the property to change there velocity.
So the recap: the amount of mass just tell us how hard it is to change from one speed to another.
Now acording to the standard model, if there were no Higgs field then all particals would be massless and travel at the speed of light, so it most exsist.
Particals that move at the speed of light can't slow down, but they can bounce of things
like particles, which are really just excitations in a quantum field. Well the Higgs field have a high value everywhere, so there are alot of bounce between the particles (and the excitations of Higgs particles) and becuase they bounce at the speed of light it look like we don't move. And there we have it, only objects that had mass was able not to travel at the speed of light.

Answer 10

Gravity, density, volume does NOT give MASS. (This is WRONG).
Mass of an object has nothing to do with GRAVITY.

The mass of a boiling ball is the same on EARTH as it is on the MOON (no gravity). Maybe hali was thinking of WEIGHT... which does depend on gravity.

Answer 11

*spelling correction: "boiling ball" is suppose to be BOWLING ball.

Answer 12

Mass is the measure of QUANTITY of MATTER within an object (general and chemistry). In physics, mass is the numerical measure of its (the object’s) inertia. Fundamentally, mass is the amount of matter within an object. And this is the Biology section, you will need to know mass as that first definition. (Biology and chemistry are intertwined).

Mass does not depend on gravity, therefore mass does not equal weight.