Video Transcript
Complete the sentence by filling in
the blanks. A beam balance, a spring balance,
and a digital scale are types of measurement tools. A beam balance and digital scale
are typically used to measure blank and a spring balance is typically used to
measure blank. Is it (A) weight, mass or (B) mass,
weight.
To begin, let’s recall the
difference between weight and mass as well as what these measurement tools are and
how they’re used.
Remember that the weight of an
object depends on its mass and the gravitational force acting on it. Because of this, an object weighs
less on the Moon than it does on Earth, for example, because on the surface of the
Moon, the object experiences a weaker gravitational force than here on Earth. But the mass of an object tells how
much matter is in it. And so an object’s mass is the same
no matter where it’s measured.
Thankfully, converting between mass
and weight is simple. And actually, tools used for
measuring mass really measure weight but can be calibrated so that they give the
mass of objects.
Now let’s take a look at the three
measurement tools we’re considering in the question.
A beam balance functions by taking
an object with a known mass and comparing it to an object that we want to measure
the mass of. Beam balances are typically
calibrated to read mass measurements.
Digital scales are also usually
calibrated to read mass measurements. To do this, the digital scale first
measures an object’s weight and then calculates the mass from that. And the final mass reading can be
displayed in units of kilograms or grams, for instance.
We’ve seen that both the beam
balance and digital scale are typically used to measure mass. So let’s go ahead and fill in this
first blank with the word mass.
Thus, we can infer that the spring
balance is normally used to measure weight, and this is correct. When using a spring balance, we
hang an object on a spring. And the force of gravity pulls the
object downward, causing the spring to extend or stretch out. We can tell the weight of the
object by seeing how much it extends the spring. So let’s fill in this second blank
with the word weight. This corresponds to answer option
(B).
Completing the sentence, we have
that a beam balance, a spring balance, and a digital scale are types of measurement
tools. A beam balance and digital scale
are typically used to measure mass and a spring balance is typically used to measure
weight.
