Weight and mass are often used to mean the same thing. But they are different.

The mass of an object is a measure of the amount of matter it contains. 
The weight of an object is a measure of the force exerted by gravity on the object. The weight of the object will vary according to its distance from the centre of the earth.

The basic unit for mass in the metric system of measurement is the kilogram (kg).

The commonly used units are milligrams, grams, kilograms and tonnes.

Unit
Symbol
Examples
milligrams
mg
A small feather weighs 25 mg. Weight_01.gif
grams
g
An AA battery has a weight of 60 g.
kilograms
kg
My weight is 90 kg. --------->
tonnes
t
A big car weighs 1.1 tonnes.

Converting between Units

To convert between the units shown in bold in the first column and the units in the second column, multiply or divide by the factors indicated in the third column.

Unit
Convert to
Action
milligrams (mg)
g
÷ 1000
kg
÷ 1000 000
t
÷ 1 000 000 000
grams (g)
mg
× 1000
kg
÷ 1000
t
÷ 1 000 000
kilograms (kg)
mg
× 1 000 000
g
× 1000
t
÷ 1000
tonnes (t)
mg
× 1 000 000 000
g
× 1 000 000
kg
× 1000

Examples

1. To change 5 kilograms into grams − multiply by 1000.

5 kg = 5 × 1000 grams = 5000 g

2. To change 150 milligrams into grams − divide by 1000

150 mg = 150 ÷ 1 000 grams = 0.15 g