How would you weigh something using your iphone?

Question

If you know the weight of the phone, how would you damage an object using the phone?

Edit: Well, if you had a device that allows you to compare scales?

Answer 1

Place both objects motionless in outer space at a known distance separately from the massless ruler. Due to the mutual gravitational attraction, they will attract a common center of gravity. Use the iPhone camera to record the starting point and meeting point above the ruler. From the table. point and starting points calculate relative masses. A bonus if you can also do this using an iPhone watch instead of a camera.

Answer 2

Write a program that measures the acceleration of phones using the accelerometer sensor.

Throw the phone at a stationary object with an unknown weight. Using the change in acceleration recorded on the phone and the distance that an unknown object was moving, you should be able to calculate the appropriate vectors to determine the weight of the object.

More accurate results will be achieved by minimizing friction - I suggest pushing the phone on a smooth surface (say, a solid block of carbon dioxide).

In addition, such tests are best done with your friend’s phone.

Answer 3

If you can compare the scales, then accelerate the light object to a fraction of the speed of light until the scales compare. Since e = m * c ^ 2, convert the acceleration energy to a mass, then add or subtract this mass to calculate your unknown weight.

Answer 4

How about using an accelerometer to measure the time taken to drop an iPhone from a known height. Then apply the tape to the object that you need to weigh on the iPhone and drop it from the same height. Using some fairly simple equations, you can determine the difference in speed of the end using the known gravitational acceleration and, therefore, the difference in weight. Subtract the weight of the iPhone and hey presto, you probably have the least accurate weighing device in the world (but without any additional equipment).

Edit

As indicated by Seth. The foregoing clearly does not work, since objects will accelerate at the same speed and, therefore, have the same final speed (different from any minimal effect of air resistance). To measure weight, it is necessary to calculate the force that the object hits the ground, which can then be used to calculate the weight (using F = ma). One way to achieve this (although not necessarily realistic) would be to have uniformly compressible planting material, where you can measure the distance that it compresses. The force that only one iPhone will use on the material is known as both m and a, and, as such, can be used to generate the force created by the combined iPhone and object.

As for the material that can be used to remove iphone, any suggestions?

Answer 5

The only thing you can do is compare the weight of the object with the phone. So you would have a vague idea of ​​whether the object is lighter or heavier than XXX grams.

However, I do not think that you could do anything programmatically, provided that the phone does not have a scale.

Answer 6

Take a solid spring rod mounted on the ground. Attach the iPhone and the object to be measured in the panel. Measure the acceleration created by spring bending back and forth. Take the given bending and acceleration and mathematical information that I don’t know here> to get the mass. The conversion from mass to weight remains as an exercise for the reader.

Answer 7

The idea of ​​spring (By Ignacio VA) is good and PDE is no longer needed, except for knowing that the frequency will be ((k / m) ^ (1/2)) / (2 pi).

(is there no LaTeX markup here?)

So, if you know the weight of the phone and can measure the frequency using the internal accelerometer, measure K of spring once using the phone yourself, and then put both the phone and the object on spring and measure the frequency. Solve for the mass of two and subtract the mass of the iphone to get the mass of the object!

Note that the nice thing about this method is that you do not need to know the spring constant in advance ... you can measure it!

Answer 8

How can you when the phone is not equipped with some kind of scale? For this you need the necessary equipment. This is not possible with just a telephone.