how to use a triple beam balance

How to Read Triple Beam Balance

How to Use a Triple Beam Balance:
1. Clean the pan
2. Assemble the pan in the top notch
3. Zero out the balance
4. Place the object in the center of the pan
5. Put the rear weights in the notches
6. Balance out the object using all three weights
7. Make sure you only have two decimal places in your answer

How to Zero out the balance:
To get the balance balanced, the pointer should swing an equal distance above and below the zero point. The pointer does not need to come to a complete stop, it only has to swing as far to the right as it does to the left. If you do not do this, your measurements will be completely off.

Notches
The back two sliding weights must always sit in a notch. The front sliding weight, the one that measures single grams, does not have notches and can sit anywhere.

Three Weights
There are three weights on the Triple Beam Balance; the last sliding one which measures how many ten grams (10...20...30...) grams, the middle sliding one which measures how many hundred (100...200...300...), and the front one which measures how many single grams (1...2...3...)

The Two Decimal Places
There must always be two decimal places in your answer. The last one must always end in a 0 or a 5. In the single gram sliding counterweight, you must judge if the weight is exactly on the number or in between two numbers. For instance, if both the ten and hundred gram weights are in their zero notches, and the single gram is betwen 4 and 5, between the 3 tenths and 4 tenths mark, your answer would be 4.35. If it was on the 3 tenths mark, it would be 4.30.