A triple-beam balance is used to measure the mass of the cylinder. A pan on whic

Question

A triple-beam balance is used to measure the mass of the cylinder. A pan on which the unknown mass is placed is balanced on a knife-edge against three levers (or beams) with different masses on them. The masses are in the ratio of 1:10:100. By using a lever, the force applied can be increased by mechanical advantage to lift the pan containing the cylinder. The masses can be moved to different places on the lever so that the amount of mechanical advantage can be controlled to balance the cylinder. The two heavier masses have a notches so that they fit into the grooves which are at fixed positions along their beams. The lightest mass slides on a lever that is marked to indicate the amount of mass on the sample pan that it will balance. An accuracy of 0.1 g can be achieved by using the slider on the 10 g arm.

Your cylinder is placed on the pan of the triple balance. The positions of the three masses on the balance is a shown below. What is the mass of the cylinder?

Explanation / Answer

What you can do to read these kinds of balances is to add up all the weights starting with the roughest measurements.

In this case you would start by 0g on the 1000g scale
then add 20g on the 100g scale
then add 7.7g on 10g scale

therefore the total mass is 27.7g

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