J's Free Balance Scale and Graduated Cylinder

Hi, my name is J. Today you will see how I built my homemade balance scale and graduated cylinder from objects you can find around your house. You can make a balance scale and a graduated cylinder to compare the weight of different objects. The balance scale was quite easy to make, all you will need is a coat hanger, string, and dixie cups. The graduated cylinder was even easier to make, all you will need is a piece of paper, a water bottle (no specific kind), and a ruler/tape measure. What I plan on doing with this project now that it is built is to start weighing things.

Supplies

Balance scale: graduated cylinder:

~coat hanger ~water bottle

~2 strings (the same length) ~paper

~two dixie cups ~ruler/ tape measure

Step 1: Supplies Needed for J's Balance Scale

The materials needed for the balance scale are coat hanger, dixie cups, and string. I chose the coat hanger because it's sturdy and when you put something on one side it leans to the object that is heavier. The dixie cups are a lot more sturdier than foam cups. The thicker the string the more it will hold without you having to worry about it breaking. My inspiration came from a similar project that was created on the internet.

Step 2: Building the Balance Scale

The first step is taking your string and tieing it around the hanger. Depending on how you want to connect the string and the cups, I poked a hole and just tied the ends of the string to it. The last step is to take two different objects. It can be any and put one in each cup. Then take notes and have fun!!

Step 3: Testing J's Balance Scale

The way I tested my balance scale was I took two different smaller objects and put them in the two cups. The objects I used were 10 paper clips and 10 tacs. The balance scale was pretty effective when coming to the evidence. The tacs did weigh more compared to the paper clips.

Step 4: Supplies Needed for J's Graduated Cylinder

I used a basic water bottle because it was nice and see-through compared to a normal cup. I did end up using a normal tape measure but if you don't have one a ruler will work just as well. The reason I used a ruler is that I needed some way to find the length of the amount of water I had. I choose that sketch because I saw a lot of similar pictures that look like that sketch. My inspiration was off of what some other people made.

Step 5: Building the Graduated Cylinder

The steps on buliding this was I took an empty water bottle and a piece of paper. Measured out inches and started writing. You can go as far as you want with the amount of water just make sure the bottle can hold it. Then I took just some basic tape and taped it onto the bottle. Make sure the first mark is lined up with the very bottom of your bottle.

Step 6: Testing J's Graduated Cylinder

I tested my graduated cylinder by taking a pen and a pencil plus the same amount of water and put both in a labeled water bottle, one at a time. I personally think that it definitely works but it won't work as well as a normal store-bought graduated cylinder. A pro to this is that you have an easy cheap graduated cylinder. But the con is that you cant fit wider objects in it.

Step 7: Using the Tools to Compare the Density of Objects

Density is the amount of space an object takes up. I took the objects and put them inside of the water bottle and measured out how much of the space it took up. For some objects that were heavier, you could see that the water went up. Where objects that weren't as heavy were a little bit harder to see. The way I found the density of something on my balance scale was by looking at which object weighed more. So that helped me determine how much density was in them.

Step 8: Conclusion

I plan on using my graduated cylinder and my balance scale in the future by helping me figure out how much something weighs or how much space it takes up. I think that I could have used a sturdier water bottle and better cups. Overall this project was fun and cant wait to use it in future projects.