Puzzle

[NPK]

I don't know if there is an answer to this...just see if you can think of an ingenious solution!

 

 

You want to know your weight, but you only have a set of electronic kitchen scales that only weighs items up to 5 kilograms. How do you use these scales to determine your weight?

[JustStuit]

You could build a spring scale and use the cans of beans that came with the kitchen scales, or any other medium, and then weigh each of those individually. This is assuming you're allowed to build a scale.

[NPK]

hmm..let's say you can use anything else, except other scales. Probably impossible or is there a genius here?

[JustStuit]

You could arrange your weight so evenly on all the scales that they all read less than five kilos and then add them.

[starbug1]

You hack off all your limbs and weigh them individually. That way nothing should exceed 10 kilos. If you're conscious at the end, you just sew yourself back together.

[The Thing]

One scale is enough.

First you need to buy a boat. Those wooden 1 person boats that sink very easily.

Stand on the boat. Mark how deep the boat went into the water (draw a line).

Get out. Start putting rocks (small ones, or at least ones that are less than 5 kilos) in.

Put more rocks until the boat sinks to the line you just drew.

Weigh all the rocks on scale. Add.

[NPK]

very interesting...but people and rocks aren't the same density..that might influence the result?

[Nemesio]

very interesting...but people and rocks aren't the same density..that might influence the result?

 

I know a few people as dense as rocks. Would it work for them?

 

Nemesio

[ski_power]

Or we could do one more thing.

 

Put the guy and the weighing scale completely in a liquid(assume the scale is water proof) with density such that the scale reads less than 4.9 .

Then by laws of buoyancy we could easily calculate the weight like weight of liquid=actual weight - weight lost (or something like that, I'm feeling sleepy)

 

Or just go to a store and look out for their exchange schemes where we've got proper weighing scales.

 

Or go to a person with proper weighing scales and say, "Sir, I've got a nice kitchen weighing scale. I would you give it to you if you would allow me to check my weight on your weighing scale." All problem solved, plain and simple.

[Nevermore]

You could arrange your weight so evenly on all the scales that they all read less than five kilos and then add them.

All to often a good post is overlooked.

[NPK]

All to often a good post is overlooked.

Clever, but the original puzzle involved only 1 set of scales.

[Nevermore]

I don't know if there is an answer to this...just see if you can think of an ingenious solution!

 

 

You want to know your weight' date=' but you only have [b']a set of electronic kitchen scales that only weighs items up to 5 kilograms.[/b] How do you use these scales to determine your weight?

A set of Scales More than 1.

[JustStuit]

I thought it was implying however many scales needed, but only 5 kilos each. It's written kinda weird.

[NPK]

hmm...looks like I wrote a trick question without knowing it!

[JustStuit]

lol

[Callipygous]

put the scale under one end of a perfectly balanced seesaw and then stand on it very close to the fulcrum. measure all the distances and work out the math.

[EverCurious]

Why not decapitate certain parts of your body, measure them in segments and add it.

 

(NO i'm not serious. I was making a joke.)

[cosine]

Um what if you tried to distribute your body weight evenly over the scales?

[ski_power]

get one part of your body weighed and then fix it back on your body. Then find a function that relates to your body density, volume etc etc...

 

Then integrate |f(x) between base of feet and top of head. Over.

[JustStuit]

You could artificaially reduce gravity by 100 fold and then do the math (unless you're over 500 kilos) though this may involve techniques not yet meastered

[ski_power]

maybe the most (gulp!) practical solution ever deviced is this:

 

1. go up in a skydiving airplane

2. Take a parachute, and a jet pack(just in case, you never know)

3. Jump out of the plane.

4. Using cheat codes on the jetpack for unlimited fuel, get so much thrust such that your downward(yes, downward not upward) acceleration ranges from 0.00000000001 to 1 less than the standard 9.81 (acceleration needed may vary from person to person)

5. With the weighing scale above you(you brought it, didn't you?) i.e. on your head you get the reading.

6. Land on the ground(safety is optional), and give the reading to a guy who knows physics and ask him the answer.

 

Tada, you've found out your weight in 6 easy-to-follow steps.

[The Spith]

My answers, in no particular order:

 

1) Use a see-saw. Stand on one end and fill the other end with small objects that weigh less than 5kg. When the see-saw balances, take the weights off and weigh them invidually on the scale then add them up to get your mass.

 

2) Hang yourself from a device that measures force. Read off the force and divide it by gravity to get your mass.

 

3) Take your kitchen scale on a space ship and land on a low gravity planet. Weigh yourself then divide by the planets gravitational field and multiply by Earth's.

 

4) Find a group of weight lifters and ask them to bench press you. If one of them only just manages to do it ask him what his max lift is = your mass.

 

You could also use fluid displacement as others have said.

[Callipygous]

2) Hang yourself from a device that measures force.

 

like a scale, perhaps?

[Nevermore]

like a scale, perhaps?

I think he means a spring scale.