How much force is needed to lift a 25-kg mass?

The force needed to lift the object must be (at least) equal to the weight of the object itself. In fact, the weight W of the object pushes downward, while the force we apply, F, pushes upward. The weight of the object is
where  is the mass and  is the gravitational acceleration. Substituting, we have

And therefore, the force F we have to apply must be at least equal to this value, in order to lift the object.

Rain is pulled by gravity which is a non contact force