What is mass, net weight and gross weight: what is the difference? What is greater: weight, net or gross weight? What is gross and net: differences and application.


The average person has had to find out at least once in his life how much a liter of water weighs in kilograms. This need could arise for household, industrial needs, or simply out of banal curiosity. The entire population of the Earth can be roughly divided into 2 large groups of people - those who know how much 1 liter of water weighs in kilograms and those who do not know =) For the second group we will write this short article. One…

Logistics is a complex of clearly organized services that allow transport transportation to be carried out safely. This includes ensuring the delivery of goods to major retail chains, transportation of goods within and outside the country, forwarding, customs brokerage services, and safekeeping. It has long been noted that after passing through the sphere of economic circulation, the value of a product increases very significantly relative to its original value. That is why optimization of processes such as transportation of objects, formation and maintenance of inventories, supply and distribution,…

Quite an interesting question, from which follows a second, no less interesting question - how scientists managed to measure the mass of our planet. However, let's take it in order. The first scientist who managed to calculate the weight of the Earth was Neville Mackelin. This remarkable man was able to calculate the mass of our home planet as early as 1774, and quite accurately. As a result of calculations, the Scot came to the conclusion that the weight of planet Earth is 5,879,000,000,000,000...

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Last words Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC)“And you, Brutus” are probably known to everyone. They were addressed to Marcus Junius Brutus (85 BC - 42 BC) These words are Caesar's surprise at being killed by a man whom he patronized and to whom he did only good. That is why in the famous “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, Caesar’s killer is placed in the deepest circle of hell, where traitors suffer torment (see the publication “Who are the traitors” dated March 17, 2014)

"Brutus" is a nickname derived from the Latin word "brutus" - "rude, stupid." There are several individuals with this nickname in Roman history. Among them - Lucius Junius Brutus- patrician who in 509 BC. e. led a rebellion against the king, and became one of the founders of the Roman Republic and its first consul. It was with this brave and honest man that A.S. Pushkin compared his friend, P. Chaadaev.

He would be Brutus in Rome, Pericles in Athens,
And here he is a hussar officer.

Where else in the Russian language do we encounter this word? When we are told about brutality. There is a common belief that women like brutal men, rude and unwashed, more than polite and clean men. The popular belief is fundamentally wrong, as often happens. (And why - you can find out about this from the article published on August 11, 2013). The best thing to say about whether they like dirty rude men is the women themselves.

Of the modern languages, Italian is closest to Latin. Which is not surprising. In modern Italian there is a word “brutto”, which also translates as “bad, rude, dirty.” We quite often use this word most often when we talk about gross weight. Gross weight is the total weight of the product including packaging. For example, on the boxes in which any product is packaged, gross weight is most often written. It is reasonable. To calculate the transport required to transport these boxes, we need to know not only the weight of the goods being transported, but also the weight of the container or packaging too. Sometimes the gross weight is significantly greater than the net weight of the goods. For example, when transporting water in glass bottles, approximately half of the total weight is due to the container weight. Thus, about half of the energy, and therefore the fuel, is wasted. After all, we will not drink glass containers, and at best we will only hand them over for recycling.

There is an anecdote from the Soviet era that Japan once bought countless bottles of mineral water from the Soviet Union. In this case, the gross weight almost completely coincided with the net weight. Why? Upon arrival at their port, the Japanese poured the mineral water into plastic bottles and sent them for sale, and sent the bottles for recycling to make quite expensive glass for skyscrapers. The composition of Soviet glass was suitable for this, and Japanese glassmakers learned to remove the green or brown color of bottles using some kind of additives.

The antipode to the concept of “gross” is the concept of “net”. The word "netto" in Italian means "pure, precise." Net weight is the weight of the most useful product, without containers and without packaging. On the packages of products that we buy in the store, net weight is most often written, weight without packaging. In fact, we, as consumers, are interested, for example, in how much oil is in a paper packet. You can't spread paper on bread. By the way, the weight of bread, which is most often sold without packaging, is entirely net weight.

The word “net” should not be confused with the name of the hero of one of V.V. Mayakovsky’s poems, a diplomatic courier Theodora Nette (1896 - 1926)

The words “gross” and “net” are also used in economics and accounting. The net price of goods is the price without discounts and surcharges, the price that is indicated on the price tag and which we pay at the store’s checkout. For the seller, this is the net profit from the sale, taking into account all costs and expenses. Gross salary is the amount that is written out to the employee in the labor and wages department, and he receives a net salary, from which all taxes and all payments have already been deducted. When you agree on a salary amount when applying for a job, you should clearly understand whether we are talking about a gross salary or a net salary. The difference can be disappointingly significant.

The gross balance sheet is a balance sheet that takes into account the cost of basic and regulatory items. Regulatory payments are not included in the net balance sheet. The net balance may differ significantly from the gross balance, which is used, so to speak, for the first, general estimate of the financial condition of the enterprise.

In the oil industry, the words “gross” and “net” are also used. Gross oil is the oil coming from the well. Net oil is oil that has already been purified from salts, water and other impurities.

Surely, when choosing or purchasing a product, you came across its weight parameters indicated with strange non-Russian postscripts. Weight is indicated either with the parameter gross, or net, and may vary significantly depending on them. We'll tell you what the difference is between gross and net weight, what weight they measure, and where these strange words come from.

What is the difference between gross and net weight

  • Gross— weight of the goods including packaging and containers.
  • Net— weight without packaging is exactly the weight that the product has inside.

Thus, the difference between these two weights is much greater than the weight of the product itself. If you need to take into account the weight of a parcel when transporting or sending by mail, then you cannot do without the gross weight. If you are only interested in the product itself and its characteristics, then look for the net weight.

Don't be fooled in supermarkets! Some manufacturers write gross weight on the packaging. And you really hold in your hand a jar of olives with a total weight of 200 grams, but there is much less of the product itself. Look for the net weight indication.

However, the net weight may differ from the weight of the main product. Here these are olives, but there is also liquid, which, as you can see, occupies more than half of the total net mass.

Where did these words come from?

These words are in Latin and Italian, but they came to Russian from Italian. Gross translates as “rough, bad, stupid,” and netto means “pure.” These terms are also used in other areas, for example when communicating on economic topics. They denote the rough cost of the product, without discounts and deductions or surcharges, or, conversely, the net profit or cost with all costs.


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Many kids, in a fit of their childish curiosity, study any thing that comes into their hands, and having learned the letters, they begin to carefully read all the inscriptions in a row. I remember, as a child, I often came across an obscure phrase - “net weight” - on any food product. I wondered why the mass I knew was always accompanied by an intricate “net.” What is missing from this mass?

"Gross" and "net"- these two economic terms came to us from the Italian language. Literally ‘brutto’ is translated as “bad”, while ‘netto’ is “clean”, in other words, cleared of excess. If we study the etymology of these words even deeper, we can find their origin in Latin, where, for example, ‘brutus’ means “stupid, unreasonable, rude.” Interestingly, the Italians themselves use the definitions “net” and “lordo” to name the two types of weight (‘lordo’ – dirty, containing impurities).

Net weight- this is the name given to the weight of the product itself, the product, without taking into account the weight of its packaging (be it a box, a candy wrapper or any other container). The term “net” is also used to refer to the net price of a product minus discounts and allowances. So, for the buyer, the net price is the amount of money actually paid for the product, while for the seller it is the net profit from the sale of the product, minus all costs and expenses.

Gross weight– the opposite of net weight, that is, the total weight of the product, including the container in which it is packaged. The opposite of the term “net,” “gross” is used to denote the price without deductions (for example, the price on the stock market) or profit without deductions of costs.

Half net weight The weight of the product is considered together with the primary packaging (packaging that cannot be separated from the product before its use without compromising the consumer properties of the product). Examples of such goods are a can of canned food, a tube of toothpaste, and a bottle of perfume.

The definition of “gross for net” is also worth mentioning. This is the name of the condition of the purchase and sale agreement, under which the payment for the sold products is made based on gross weight. As a rule, this condition is applied when concluding transactions for mass and relatively cheap goods, the mass of packaging of which is quite small and amounts to no more than a percent or two of the total mass of the goods. In such cases, the tare weight can be ignored and the gross weight can be taken as the net weight.

The definitions of “net” and “gross” are used not only to measure the weight of food, but also in many other areas. For example, in the field of oil production, “net” oil is oil that does not contain water, salt or other impurities (ballast). In the insurance industry, there is the term gross premium - the full amount of the insurance premium paid to the insurer by the policyholder in accordance with the concluded contract. The net premium is the main component of the gross premium and is directly intended to cover the damage incurred. The terms “gross” and “net” are also mentioned when purchasing a car from Germany, where “net” is the price minus VAT.

Well, all that remains is to thank the Italian people for two pithy words that have found application in so many types of economic activity.

Many people get confused when they hear the terms “gross”, “net”, “mass”. How do they differ from each other, and how to correctly calculate this or that weight indicator? Let's understand the article.

What is weight, net and gross mass of cargo: definition

Often at school - in mathematics class, at college - during lectures on professional subjects or at work - you need to make calculations of the mass of a load - net and gross. First, let's look at the definition of these concepts:

  • Weight is a physical quantity, namely the force acting on a horizontal surface or vertical suspension.
  • Net weight of cargo- means "clean", that is, cleared of something. This is the weight of the cargo without tare or packaging.
  • Gross weight- this is the weight of the product with container or packaging.

These concepts came to us from the Italian language. If translated literally, they mean: gross - “bad”, net - “clean”. These concepts are often found in accounting and economics.

Mass, net and gross weight: what is the difference between them, which is greater?



Definition - what is gross and net

To understand what mass, gross and net are, you need to understand the difference between these definitions.

  • Weight is a physical measure of quantity. Thanks to it, the body maintains its forward motion.
  • Net and gross weight- these are completely different concepts, the definitions of which were given above.

It is worth noting that both gross weight and net weight can be called mass, that is, all these are fundamental quantities measured in grams, kilograms, tons.

The difference between gross and net is as follows:

  • Gross- this is the mass or weight of the product with container.
  • Net- this is the weight of the cargo without containers, that is, the net weight of the product.

Which of these quantities is greater? From the above, it is clear that the gross will be greater, since the tare weight is also added to the net weight of the goods. For example:

  • Net cargo weight - net - 10 kg
  • Container weight - 1 kg
  • The gross weight will be: 10 kg + 1 kg = 11 kg

Accordingly, the gross weight will be 1 kilogram more than the net weight. But gross can consist not only of net net weight and tare weight, but also of other components. For example, canned cucumbers weigh 1500 grams together with the jar. To calculate the net weight of cucumbers, you need to subtract not only the weight of the jar, but also the mass of the brine. Therefore, it is important to know what needs to be calculated and what is meant by net weight in a given problem.

How to calculate weight, gross mass, if net is known: formula for converting net to gross

There are many problems to find net and gross. But how to calculate the weight, gross mass, if the net is known? In this case, the weight of the packaging or other components of the product must be known. Here is the formula for converting net to gross:



For example: The weight of a clean product without containers is equal to 14 kilograms. Package weight is 2 kilograms. When converting net to gross, the following value is obtained: 14+2=16 kilograms.

It is important to know: It often happens that the packaging weighs much more than the product. This may happen when transporting expensive equipment. In some documents you can find such a concept as "gross for net".

This applies to cheap products whose packaging is very light and amounts to less than 1% of the weight of the product. In this case, the tare weight is ignored and the gross is taken as net.

These definitions are used not only in the food industry, but also in the oil refining industry. For example, gross oil is the weight of pure oil + water, salts and other impurities.

Video: #229 Gross and Net Price in Poland.

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