How much would you weigh on the Moon?
The Moon\'s surface gravity is about 1.62 m/s² — roughly 16.5% of Earth\'s 9.81 m/s². So a 75 kg adult on Earth weighs just 12.4 kg on the Moon. Your mass doesn\'t change (you still contain the same amount of matter), but your weight — the downward force you exert — shrinks dramatically.
Why the Moon\'s gravity is so weak
Gravity depends on two things: the mass of the body you\'re standing on, and your distance from its centre. The Moon has about 1.2% of Earth\'s mass and 27% of Earth\'s radius. Plug those numbers into Newton\'s law of universal gravitation and you get a surface acceleration about one-sixth of Earth\'s. That\'s why every Apollo astronaut you\'ve seen on grainy 1969 footage moves like they\'re bouncing — they were.
What\'s actually different on the Moon?
- Jump height: roughly 6× higher. Without a spacesuit, you could clear a basketball hoop.
- Falling speed: objects fall about 6× slower. Drop a hammer and a feather on the Moon — they hit at the same time (David Scott actually did this on Apollo 15).
- Walking gait: the famous "moonwalker bounce" exists because your normal walking force pattern launches you airborne in lunar gravity.
- Atmosphere: essentially none — so no air resistance modifies any of the above.
The Moon vs other bodies
The Moon is at the gentle end of the gravity spectrum. Mars has 38% Earth gravity, Jupiter has 253%, and the Sun has 28 times Earth gravity. You can see your weight on every body in the solar system on the all-planet calculator.
What about astronauts and weightlessness?
Astronauts orbiting Earth on the ISS aren\'t weightless because gravity is absent — gravity at that altitude is still 90% of surface gravity. They\'re weightless because they\'re in continuous free-fall, falling around the Earth at exactly the right speed to keep missing it. True low-gravity walking (where you experience reduced but real weight) only happens on solid bodies like the Moon, Mars or asteroids.