OH MY GOSH! SCALES

Please Explore!

So my question has always been: What exactly is ROBERVAL'S ENIGMA??? There it is featured in David Macaulay's The Way Things Work. Is it the fact that the scale's trays stay level? Or does it have something to do with the positioning of the weight on the trays? Who knows...I think most of my students are convinced that Roberval ( a 17th century French mathematician ) was not all that bright. I ask students "oooh, what is going on here?" and they look at me with that 'big deal" face. Of course, they lept at the challenge of actually building a scale. By golly, you got to love scales, an example of of levers ( one of the simple machines! ). As a resource, may I suggest LEGO® 's Simple Machine's curriculum ( the one prepared by the Anoka-Hennepin independent School District no 11 ).

Why look! An illustration of first class levers like they use in scales!

Why look! Pictures of scales!

First, a picture of a scale I built from a kit! Then, a scale built by Andrew...notice the trays are at an angle! How could this be fixed? How about a picture of the boys building a scale from LEGO plans! OK, a closeup! Uhmmm, a scale built by Richard using a parallelogram or something! Donald's Scale! Mike's Balancing Act! Martha's scale using a tension band! Well, then there isShawn's not really functioning "but I'm still working on it" scale! Or how about the finished product! Then there is Kirsten's balance using paper dishes. Luke took one look at her model, and built one too!To top it off, a scale built by Jake utilizing an optical encoder so we can output to TCLOGO!!! Happy happy joy joy! MOVIE TIME! A movie of TJ! Or Keely captured on videotape when she couldn't resist playing with a scale!

Go Back to Weird Richard