What can i use to calibrate a scale?

Question

What can i use to calibrate a scale?

Answer 1

how accurate do you have to be ?

use a liter of water it weighs one kilogram

and that should get you close enough for a bathroom scale

Answer 2

A pint, a pound, the world around. or get a 1/2 oz Kruger rand.

Answer 3

I assume you are referring to weight, but the same principles apply to any kind of measuring equipment

Step 1: Zero. When you are not applying any force to the scale, whatever it measures is by definition "0". You will have to do something about it, or at least be aware of it and correct the final measurement by this amount.

Step2: Check its linearity. When you add a weight W, you measure an increment of x, when you add 2W, do you get an increment of 2x?

Step3: After you "zero" as per step 1, check its absolute measurement. If you add a weight of 1kg (1 liter of water), does it read 1 kg?

It is difficult to fix linearity, but offset and absolute measurements are easy to deal with.

Answer 4

you may have to use some good calibration center..

Answer 5

You have several good suggestions. I personally like the idea of using coins. they have a known weight are easily obtainable and each one provides a small increment up to many pounds. They are not used up so the cost is minimal.