Now precise and accurate with weighing scales!
- Weighing scales are devices used to ascertain the weight of various items.
- ‘Weighing scales’ are also known as ‘scales’ and ‘weighing machines’.
- Weighing scales are available as electronic or mechanical machines, and the latter uses a spring that is measured when pressure is applied.
- Errors can easily occur in the measurements of weighing scales, caused by air movement, friction, magnets, temperature changes, water and moisture, among others.
- More efficient modern weighing scales that use a spring, have been mentioned from the 1600s, although the first known recorded design was invented by Richard Salter in 1770.
- Balancing weighing scales have been used for thousands of years to measure objects, and they also commonly symbolise justice.
- Weighing scales come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes, and are often made of metal or plastic.
- Weighing scales are commonly found in kitchens, used in food preparation; bathrooms, used to measure body weight; and factories, for commercial use.
- Early electronic weighing scales were invented in the 1940s, and these were the predecessors for the modern style scales that use load cells that measure pressure.
- The term ‘scale’ as in ‘weighing scale’, originates from words like ‘skal’, ‘scala’ and ‘schaal’ that mean ‘bowl’ and ‘drinking cup’ in several different languages from the 1200s and earlier.
Bibliography:
Menk C, History of Weighing Scales, 2010, Ezine, http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Weighing-Scales&id=4791422
Weighing Scale, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighing_scale
