Week Twenty Solutions -- Superb Scales

Austen joined us for the first time and did an awesome job with his scale. He used a pin as his optional piece.





Thomas (11) and Grace (9) chose a metal, triangular tin for their item of choice. First, they folded the 2 pieces of paper into strips to make them stronger. Second, they unbent 2 of the paper clips and put holes in the ends of the papers and put the paper clips through the holes, creating a sort of sling for the pennies. Third, they taped the three straws together to increase their strength and taped the slings to the end of the straws. Fourth, they placed the straws on top of the tin and centered it. Last, they placed the pennies in the paper holders and it worked. The pennies are in the slings. Magnificent work Thomas and Grace! You should be proud.



Boo and Zee also joined us this week and they too created a spectacular scale! You can read about it here. Glad to have you. Hope to "see" you again!



T and H made a scale using 2 business cards, 3 straws, 2 paperclips, a cup, 4 inches of tape, another 4 inches of tape (the optional item), 4 inches of string, an eraser, and 2 pencils. Instead of scissors, they used a hole punch. First, they inserted two bendy straws into another bendy straw. Then, they folded two business cards and punched two holes in each one. They used 2 inches of string on each side to tie the cards to the paperclips. They bent the paperclips open and inserted the heavier part into the straws and used some tape to tape the ends shut so that the paperclips wouldn't fall out. Then they placed to pencils on either side of the straight main straw and taped all three to the top of the cup. They placed an eraser on top to hold it. The two pics show the scale before the pennies and after.




Snufkin and Moomintroll also did a fantastic job with their scales! You can read about it here. Snufkin pierced a straw with a paper clip and threaded both ends into two vertically-placed straws. Her item of choice was a loo-roll which she used as a stable base for her scales by taping the base of each of
the vertical straws to the cardboard inner-tube. She then made two
little pouches out of folded paper with bent paper clip hoops to hang
them on either end of the scales. She was able to balance the scales
by laying five pennies in each pouch.



Moomintroll similarly threaded his paper clips through a straw. He
then fixed the same paperclip into the top of the plastic cup. He used
his item of choice, sticky tack, inside the cup whilst he did the
piercing in order to prevent the cup from cracking. He then removed
the sticky tack. He cut a further straw in half and strengthened each
side of the central straw by inserting each half. He used the paper
and tape to make little parcels of pennies and hung them on the ends
with the pieces of string. This way he could move the parcels along
the straw at either end until he acheived a perfect balance.



M. is back again with this contribution to the scale project and he did a magnificent job! M. used 1 cup, 3 paper clips, 1 straw, and a clear plastic bag as his optional piece. He challenged himself to use the least number of items. He cut up the bottom of the cup leaving 2 stubs on which he inserted a straightened out clip as a fulcrum. The clip goes through the stubs and one straw. He attached 2 clips to each end of the straw and to 2 cut up pouches from the corners of the plastic bag. He used his scale to compare coins from different countries. the US penny is among the lightest.





Georgia just completed her scale and did a magnificent job! She even used it to compare the weight of other things like sugar and flour. To read about her solution, go here. Georgia made her scale with the two pencils and a straw forming a tripod. She used the eraser as an anchor for the straw to stop it from sliding. She used an old tissue box for her extra item and cut some cardboard from it, but she ended up not using it in the final solution. She used: two pencils, two straws, yarn, tape, four paperclips, paper, and an eraser. Great job!