I just did a major edit on this page, adding mostly personal knowledge. I guess if I'm gonna do much of this I should create a Wikipedia account /sheepish. Meanwhile I am Roger Williams aka localroger@yahoo.com, if anyone wants additional documentation, etc.
Scale Image
I made a change to the caption of the first image and then reverted for fear of inaccuracy. I'm trying to remeber my physics 101 but using levers and fulcrums are indepedent of the earth's gravity, and only proportional in terms of mass. example: a mass of 10kg, 5cm left of a fulcrum would balance with a mass of 5kg 10 cm to the right of the fulcrum, no matter what gravity was (ignoring the mass of whatever you're balancing them on). Therefore anything using levers is properly termed a balance. Any device using a spring is based upon force which is dependent on gravity and therefore a scale. Most bathroom scales use springs however the type in the image at the beginning of this article uses a lever/counterbalance method. Shouldn't the caption call it a balance instead of the inaccurate scale? Can someone with some physics knowledge back me up or refute me please. Vicarious 20:54, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
- No. Scales is a broader term; it includes balances. I've run into other pepole with the same misconception before, but there is no real basis for it. Just consider, for example, any depiction you have ever seen of the Scales of Justice. (When the adjective is included in a "spring" scale, rather than just "scale" standing alone, that is generally considered to be someting different from a balance. However, just to confuse things even more, some people also call spring scales balances.) Gene Nygaard 01:27, 21 September 2005 (UTC)