 This Triple Balance Beam Flash applet was developed as an educational tool. Chemistry and physics students probably have opportunity to use such in the classroom, but here is one that you can use on the web, from anywhere! But, it probably wouldn't hurt to read the rest of this instructional page before you do. BTW, these images are just to point you in the right spot, they deliberately don't zoom to a bigger picture. When you are ready, click on the picture to the left to open up the application. Probably all Triple Beam Balances are very similar, but this one was designed to be similar to one from Ohaus. |
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For starters, you can put all sorts of items or combinations of items onto the pan for weighing. Just drag them over to the pan. |
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There is even a mystery object. Everytime you drag it onto the pan, it takes on a random mass value. Just dragging it to a different spot on the pan won't change the value. Drag it off and then back on to consider it a new mass. |
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The triple beam balance has its namesake three beams which let you adjust the mass in increments of 100, 10, or less then 1 gram increments. Just grab the poises and drag them to where you want. |
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And then pay attention to the needle that tells you if the pan mass is heavier or lighter than the triple beam mass. |
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If it turns out that the triple beams can't supply enough mass to counter balance the pan's mass, then try using the add-on-mass for an extra 500 g. To remove the add-on-mass, click the outline where it used to be. |
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Don't forget to zero the triple beam balance before you use it. This is especially important for the smaller objects. |
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There are two buttons, Reset and Empty Pan. The Empty Pan button only removes the object from the pan. The Reset does that but also resets a new error into the balance. |
