Re: Measurement of mass

[Ken Fox <kfox@STEGA.SMOKY.ORG>]

I have a film clip from SkyLab showing a man being masses by measuring the
period of oscillation of a chair and him in the chair. If it is SHM then m
is proportional to period.

There is an old PSSC lab based on the same principle of inertia. It does
require calibrating the "inertial balance" against known masses. I have
students do this as a lesson in calibration. If they can successfully
measure the mass of a bag of candy this way, they get to keep it. Yum!

Ken Fox
Smoky Hill High School
16100 Smoky Hill Rd
Aurora,CO 80015
303-693-1700(w)
303-850-7537(H)
kfox@stega.smoky.org

On Tue, 12 Oct 1999, romanza wrote:

> Hi friends,
> There was a question I saw in a book:
> The measurement of mass can be done by a beam balance, which is reliable
> only if the gravitational field is uniform. A spring balance would measure
> the correct weight (hence mass) if the force constant k is constant. The
> question is then: is there a method to measure mass/weight which is
> independent of the two assumptions described (i.e. indept of g field and k)?
>
> rom