The feel of your weight on earth is just a measure of the force of gravity pulling you to earth's surface. If you have ever fallen off a ladder (or a telescope in my case!) you have a painful memory of how strong the force of gravity is between you and the earth. The more compact the planet you stand on, the stronger the gravity and the more you weigh. If you stood on a white dwarf, you would weigh an outrageous 4 million times more than what you weigh on earth, which would squash you flatter than a piece of paper. On a neutron star, you'd weigh a ridiculous one hundred billion pounds. The key to understanding neutron stars and black holes is in seeing how the compactness of an object affects the strength of gravity it generates.
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