Mass (mass spectrometry)

Mass is a property of physical objects that reveals itself in to ways:

1. as a resistance to change of velocity (inertia)
2. as a force when exposed to a gravitational field

The symbol for the physical quantity mass is m.

The SI unit for mass is kg. In mass spectrometry it is more common to use the Atomic Mass Unit u, which is also called dalton Da.

In spite of their name, mass spectrometers do not measure the mass of ions, but the mass/charge ( m/q) of ions.