Hi! I am a science student in Massachusetts and I am making this Instructable to teach you how to make a homemade balance scale and graduated cylinder! These tools are great for science class and they are very easy to use. I built these tools with around the house materials and did not need to go out and buy anything!

Supplies

Balance scale materials:

1.Hanger

2. 2 pieces of yarn/twine/string that are the same size

3. 2 cups (However big you want your pans)

4. A one hole punch

Graduated Cylinder materials:

1. A plastic bottle

2. Paper

3. A sharpie

4. A syringe

5. Packing tape

Step 1: Balance Scale Inspiration and Original Design.

My inspiration for this was to build a working balance scale for science class. This was my original idea of what it would look like. I designed it this way because of the designs on the internet, this was the most popular design.

Step 2: Building the Balance Scale

The first thing you need to do is cut 2 pieces of yarn that are the same length. Cut the yarn double the length you want the cup to hang. Next you need to hole punch the 2 cups on each side. Then you need to put the yarn through the two holes and then tie them. Next you need to place the two pieces of tied yarn over the hanger and into the little divot.

Step 3: Testing the Balance Scale

To test my balance scale I put a broom over 2 chairs and then placed the hanger on the broom. I measured paper clips ( I used the paper clips because they are exactly 1 gram each), sugar and bulletin board tacks. The balance scale was definitely very effective and accurate. When first testing, I used a digital scale to ensure that if the balance scale showed, that for example the sugar and tacks were the same weight, then I weighed them on the digital scale and got the same results.

Step 4: Graduated Cylinder Original Idea and Inspiration

My inspiration was to build a working and accurate graduated cylinder. My original design is above, and my graduated cylinder turned out pretty much the way I had imagined. This was a mixture of popular designs.

Step 5: Building the Graduated Cylinder

When I built the graduated cylinder I used an x-acto knife to cut the top off. I then spent about 5 minutes using scissors to trim the extra plastic off and make it even. Then I measured the paper out and cut it to scale. Next I taped the paper to the bottle.Then I measured by 10 mls with the syringe and marked it on the paper. I did have to do a sloppy copy and a final copy. I also used packing tape to laminate it so that the scale was protected from the water and used the packing tape to tape the paper on.

Step 6: Testing the Graduated Cylinder

To test the graduated cylinder I measured a pink tack, a green tack and 2 rocks that were of close size. The results came out pretty much the same and all of the objects had a very close volume. This evidence shows that my graduated cylinder is effective and accurate.

Step 7: Doing a Project With Your Tools

First, density is the amount of matter in a given space. How you would find the density of a problem is the mass divided by the volume. I did my first project and here is me measuring the volume and mass of a chap-stick and a binder clip. I came to the conclusion that the chap-stick is more dense because it had more mass. While it had a similar volume to the glue stick the mass of the objects were completely different.

Step 8: Conclusion

I plan to use my tools with every upcoming density, mass or volume assignment. I think I could have improved my balance scale by using bigger pans for the objects to be measured in. For my graduated cylinder I would improve on how high I went with the markings. When building these tools all you need to do is take your time (especially on the graduated cylinder).

Introduction: How to Make a Homemade Density Set!