Talk:Spring scale

Newton Metre or Newton Meter
QUOTE The spring scale can also be correctly called a Newton Metre, that is a metre for measuring newtons. UNQUOTE

NO! A metre is a unit of length. A Newton metre (Nm) is a unit of moment or torque. For a measuring device, you need a meter. Hence it should read:-

The spring scale can also be correctly called a Newton meter, that is a meter for measuring newtons.

88.110.205.207 (talk)Mark UK —Preceding comment was added at 13:40, 9 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Go ahead and change it, then. When I rewrote it to disambiguate for the energy unit (as before they seemed to confuse N and Nm), I kept the British spelling for consistency. I didn't realize that a measuring tool was spelled differently than the unit of distance. SamuelRiv (talk) 14:58, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

No, a length is called a "metre" but a scale or device is a "meter". A Newton Metre and a Newton Meter are different things (although they are not well articled atm and, for me, references are scarce) ~ R . T . G  22:40, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Huh? For the unit, I always thought meter was the US and metre was the UK/OZ spelling: compare to kilometres vs. kilometers. (Whilst a meter can also be a device like a gauge, then it will always be suffixed with -er.) -andy 77.190.8.126 (talk) 12:38, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

I would like to see the reference to the "Newton meter" (meaning, force measurer!) somewhere on this page - with someone verifying my formatting please! KL — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.35.222 (talk) 22:45, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Chaining springs

 * If two spring scales are hung one below the other, the top will read the weight of the body hung on the lower scale, plus the weight of the lower scale itself.

Unless I’m greatly confused, the top scale will read half the weight of the body hung on the lower scale, plus the weight of the lower scale itself. I’m leaving it as-is in case I’m greatly confused. :-) -Ahruman (talk) 10:09, 10 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The quotation is correct. You are indeed confused. Freebody diagrams and Newton's Laws, friend. SamuelRiv (talk) 07:17, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Picture - can somebody hit up their physics instruction lab and get a modern one?
That is possibly the ugliest spring scale I've ever seen. It looks like it was recovered from a shelled high school in World War I. I'd be afraid to touch it for fear of getting tetanus. Hmm, I seem to be out of insults. However, it's a great illustration, but we should have a more modern classroom scale to compare to this thing - you know, the ones with the clear plastic and bright green lettering. I don't have access to a teaching lab at the moment, though. SamuelRiv (talk) 21:11, 5 February 2011 (UTC)


 * From a terrific suggestion by "andy" (77.190.8.126) on my Talk page, I've put in the German wikipedia image instead. However, it still looks pretty old. Anybody got one of those clear plastic ones? SamuelRiv (talk) 18:02, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

That photo's been swiped. I nominate the 1894 patent drawing as an illustration. I'd put it on myself, but you can't upload without logging in, and my VPN's at the cleaners this week.73.36.62.119 (talk) 22:01, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

History - Bilston
In I added the wikilink to Salter Housewares because this mentions Bilston, while the original (and subsequent) link [1] in the article mentions West Bromwich. The article now appears to reference only [1] as the source of Bilston, which (not having access to the book), I don't know it does. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Isidore (talk • contribs) 22:30, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Why Balance
Title is 'Spring scale' but reads as if it was 'spring balance'. "Balance" seems a misnomer - can we delete all uses of 'balance' from this article ? - Rod57 (talk) 02:49, 27 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I know this machine as a "Spring balance". Is this a UK/US difference? Biscuittin (talk) 12:06, 26 March 2015 (UTC)