Mass
In everyday usage, mass and "weight" are often used interchangeably. For instance, a person's weight may be stated as 75 kg. In a constant gravitational field, the weight of an object is proportional to its mass, and it is unproblematic to use the same unit for both concepts. But because of slight differences in the strength of the Earth's gravitational field at different places, the distinction becomes important for measurements with a precision better than a few percent, and for places far from the surface of the Earth, such as in space or on other planets. Conceptually, "mass" (measured in kilograms) refers to an intrinsic property of an object, whereas "weight" (measured in newtons) measures an object's resistance to deviating from its natural course of free fall, which can be influenced by the nearby gravitational field. No matter how strong the gravitational field, objects in free fall are weightless, though they still have mass.
Mass attenuation coefficient
The mass attenuation coefficient, mass extinction coefficient, or mass narrow beam attenuation coefficient of the volume of a material characterizes how easily it can be penetrated by a beam of light, sound, particles, or other energy or matter. In addition to visible light, mass attenuation coefficients can be defined for other electromagnetic radiation (such as X-rays), sound, or any other beam that attenuates. The SI unit of mass attenuation coefficient is the square metre per kilogram (). Other common units include cm/g (the most common unit for X-ray mass attenuation coefficients) and mL⋅g⋅cm (sometimes used in solution chemistry). "Mass extinction coefficient" is an old term for this quantity.