For this task I used an old set of weighing scales which was being thrown out. I decided that as their intended use was to measure people's weight, I would use them to measure other things. I started by inventing a measure of distance, with the length of the scales being one Scale. Each Scale was split into 13 Dots. The following pictures show my scale.

I used this to measure my height, and those of my Mum, Dad and sister. I am 6.12 Scales tall, my Mum is 6.9, my Dad is 6.7 and my sister is 6.2.
As can be seen in the following picture, 1 Scale is about the the same as a foot. My foot, that is.


Next I tried using it as a timepiece. I took a clock and put it next to the scales. I then tried two ways of making the scales show the time as 5:05. The first involved putting the right amount of pressure on the scales to make them show the right value. The second way involved adjusting the callibration using the wheel at the bottom so that the right value showed without any pressure being applied. The scales do not work efficiently as a timepiece because they rely on a person constantly changing the callibration or applying pressure.



Next I tried to measure the water temperature of the pond in my garden. This simply involved dipping the scales into the pond. Amazingly, this did actually change the value shown by about one half. I must assume that this means the temperature of the water is half a degree warmer than the temperature of the air. This is a strange result as my hand felt colder.



The next measurement I tried was velocity. I dropped the scales onto the lawn and tried to work out if there were any changes caused by the drop or the impact. This was hard to see because they fell quite fast. These videos show some of my attempts at reading the values as the scales fell. I did not successfully record any readings for this measurement.


I then tried weighing things outside of the normal range for this type of scale. I tried a 500g tub of sweets, but the scales registered nothing.

I would have then tried to weigh a car, but my parents were worried about the safety of the tyres if the scales broke.

Undeterred, I moved on to the last measurement: force. I hit the scales with a variety of objects. The first video is hitting it with a slipper. This barely took the dial up to 1.

The second object is a draught excluder. This took the dial to around 4.

I also tried jumping on it, which took the dial over 15, but I do not have a video of this.
The most interesting was the last object.
All is explained in my introduction on the next video.
I hate the sound of my voice on film...

Then I gave my sister a go. Of course, I had temporarily forgotten how violent she can be. I was seriously scared to go any closer:

Afterwards I sorted through the rubble.

But my sister wasn't finished. She convinced me to put all the pieces into a bag and hold it up for her to hit. I didn't hold it for long

Eventually I stopped her, and managed to carry the poor scales to their grave.


So I can conclude by saying that the scales were useless at measuring anything other than weights from about half a stone to 19 stone. And now they can't even do that.