Weight is a term that is thrown around a bit in conversation. Usually when we are talking about weight we are actually referring to an object’s mass rather than its actual weight. Weight has specific significance when it comes to apples due to their mythical association with Isaac Newton.
So how much does an apple weigh?
An apple’s weight will vary according to its cultivar or variety (the type of apple). According to one apple industry authority group APAL, Apple and Pear Australia Limited. Apples for commercial sale can vary in mass or “weight” from anywhere between 4.5oz or 130g and 8.8oz or 250g.
According to the US Department of Agriculture a medium serve of an apple weighs 6.4 oz or 182g. And another estimate on Quora is that an apple weighs between 2.5 oz or 70g and 7oz or 200g.
Fun Fact. Newton’s Apple.
Even the smallest commercial apply is a bit heavier than 1 Newton, which is the international standard (SI) for the real meaning of weight. One newton is the force needed to accelerate one kilogram of mass at the rate of one meter per second squared in the direction of the applied force. One Earth Newton (that force when standing on earth) is equivalent 101.97 grams.
Newton was a great thinker of his time. He is responsible for the three laws of motion that we still use today:
1. Objects that are not in motion remain stationary unless acted upon by another force.
2. There is a direct relationship between the force acted upon the object and the mass of that object times the acceleration the object feels (F=ma).
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Before Newton no-one could explain why objects acted the way they did, but with these three laws Newton was able to describe movement in terms everyone could understand.
But there were some problems with Newton’s theories. Newton could not explain, if all motion had to be caused by an external force, why do objects fall towards the earth when you release them from a fixed position? If there are no visible forces acting upon that object why do they move downward if nothing is acting upon them?
Newton explained this motion with gravity. Newton said that gravity is a force that the earth has upon all objects, something invisible that pulls us down at all times at a constant acceleration.
This is the basis of the myth that the way that Newton came up with his theory was when he was sitting under an apple tree and an apple fell on his head.
At the time Newton didn’t know that the acceleration of Earth’s gravity would later be calculated at approximately 9.81 m/s2. Also, at the time, he couldn’t explain what this force was made of, but only that it was invinsible and constant. It took Einstein many years later to explain gravity with his theory of relativity stating that time and space were actually bound concepts.
So, looking back at Newton and the apple, the earth’s mass causes a big bend in space time, which causes other objects, such as apples, to be pulled downward at all times, even when they are on the ground already.
Weight is actually defined as the magnitude of the gravitational force acting on an object on or near the Earth’s surface. This concept is illustrated in the equation:
w = mg = GmEm2/r2
where mE is the mass of Earth, and r is the distance between the object and the center of the Earth. r would be equal to the radius in the instance that the object is resting on Earth’s surface. G is the universal gravitational constant and is equal to 6.67*10−11 Nm2/kg2 and g is the acceleration due to gravity. The SI unit for mass is the kilogram [kg].
Weight is measured in newtons, N, or kgm/s2. One Newton is defined as a force that causes a 1 kg object to accelerate 1 m/s2. One Newton is 0.225 pound. An apple is an ideal example for such comparison. Apples weight is dependent upon species, the amount of nutrients it receives and its size. The average apple is between 70 and 100 grams or 0.33 pound or 0.7 and 1N. This idea is ironic as it is often believed that it was a fallen apple that inspired Sir Isaac Newton’s ideas about gravity.
Related Questions.
What’s the heaviest apple every grown?
According to the Guiness Book of Records. The heaviest apple was grown by Chisato Iwasaki at his apple farm in Hirosaki City, Japan on October 24 2005.
It was supposedly a Hokuto apple (a hybrid of Matsu and Fuji cultivars) and weighed 4 lb 1 oz or
1.849 kg.
How many calories in an apple?
According to the US Department of Agriculture there are 95kcal or 39 kj in a medium apple (USDA). If you are skinning apples and batching them up, then there will obviously be a few more calories involved.
What is the best way to keep an apple from browning?
Apple like other fruit can turn brown as part of a natural discoloration due to enzyme reactions when the fruit of the apple is exposed to air. So clearly one of the best ways of preventing an apply turning brown is to leave its skin till just before you eat it. For sliced apple apples you can use lemon or cinammon to keep the apple from turning brown. But according to thekitchn.com a light saltwater brine works best and surprisingly does not leave the apple tasting too salty.