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Long story short, a friend is planning to take a plane rather soon and must pack her shit. She, being of the female variety, obviously doesn't make a border-crossing move without a sizable amount of hotpants, toiletries and British souvenirs (*last item not confirmed). She has less than 24 hours to figure out how much shit she can actually pack into that suitcase of hers and, for the life of her, doesn't want to be caught dead with overweight baggage at check-in, which is rated at 15 kilos (approximately 33 lbs) or above.
What is the quickest, most imaginative or most accurate method for her to determine the weight of her freight without using a scale in the traditional sense? Please note that using a makeshift scale (such as one consisting of a pivoting plank and roughly 15 kilos worth of, say, leftover toiletries) is out of the question as said toiletries have been used up, as is any other such contraption. Damaging the suitcase and its contents is permitted as long as the weight-determining method is far-out enough, man! When the determining process is finished, at least half the contents by weight must be left over, as must half the suitcase. (Of course she would want to have more than half her suitcase and its contents when boarding the plane; ideally, no damage whatsoever should occur.)
Do note that the question in this topic is not purely of utilitarian value, but is to a greater extent meant to actuate your creative minds, contribute to general scientific knowledge or simply churn out the most incredible and otherworldly suggestions that, to a reasonable degree of accuracy, actually work. The best answer, chosen after an adequate period for answer submissions, by a tribunal consisting of me, myself and I, will be rewarded with a free TL shirt.
Disclaimer: No conditions apply (except in cases where the shipping costs of the T-shirt would equal the price of the T-shirt alone or exceed it). The grant period for answer submissions will be until the thread disappears from page 1 or, at most, 2 (two) weeks from the date of thread submittal. I will choose 2 (two) best answers, one from the category of answers that include damaging the suitcase and its contents in any reasonably unacceptable way, and one from the answers that will leave the suitcase and its contents intact after the weight-determining procedure is finished. Among those two, the winner of the TL shirt will be drawn either by a poll (moderators willing) or a coinflip. This is not a joke thread. This is not a homework thread.
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so easy. grab something that weighs 15 kilos then grab the bag. if you can't figure it out I gotta ask you where your man sense is
this is just a practical solution, someone else can enjoy the shirt
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liter = kilogram.
Place the suitcase in a plastic container, which has been allowed to come to rest in a bathtub filled to the brim with normal water. catch water which runs off in a cut in half dryer tube, and use it to fill milk cartons or what not to count the amount of liters of runoff. Once you've hit 7 2L cartons, switch to a 1L carton for the next addition and you should come up slightly below 15kg due to a tiny bit of extra water being siphoned off due to surface tension.
so easy. grab something that weighs 15 kilos then grab the bag. if you can't figure it out I gotta ask you where your man sense is is dota's trojan action done?
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On December 17 2008 09:27 L wrote:liter = kilogram. Place the suitcase in a plastic container, which has been allows to come to rest in a bathtub filled to the brim with normal water. catch water which runs off in a cut in half dryer tube, and use it to fill milk cartons or what not to count the amount of liters of runoff. Once you've hit 7 2L cartons, switch to a 1L carton for the next addition and you should come up slightly below 15kg due to a tiny bit of extra water being siphoned off due to surface tension. Show nested quote +so easy. grab something that weighs 15 kilos then grab the bag. if you can't figure it out I gotta ask you where your man sense is is dota's trojan action done?
archimedes you dog! how i s'pose to defraud gold buyer now?
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go to the nearest university or supermarket and let them weight the package..
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Get a big spring, and hang it from the ceiling. Find something that you know the weight of, like a can of soup or whatever, and hang it from the ceiling. Measure how far the spring stretches. If your known weight is 1 kilo, a 33 kilo suitcase stretches the spring 33 times as far.
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how i s'pose to defraud gold buyer now? melt more dense materials in too. Little lead never hurt anyone.
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On December 17 2008 09:34 L wrote: melt more dense materials in too. Little lead never hurt anyone.
then when they bite it they die of lead poisoning, brilliant!
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After much deliberation and reading over einstein's e=mc2 theory, I have come to the conclusion that m(w3) (over elephants ) is the correct way to figure her luggage weight Image 1 will explain...
_____
elephants
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On December 17 2008 09:30 Rev0lution wrote:
go to the nearest university or supermarket and let them weight the package..
I think you missed the point 
But i cant come up with anything other than displacement in water, which was already said. This is gunna have me thinking for a while though, funny question
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again on the water theme. you need:
1) plastic bags, or other water containers.
2) a few meters of rope or equivalent. (worst case you could even tie clothes together)
Fill bags with 15 liters of water. If yuo dont have a litre container in the kitchen, then use a milk/soda bottle that says how much it contains, and take as many bottles you need.
Tie one end of the rope through the handles of the bags (or make holes, or tie the bags to rope directly...).
Find something to hang the rope over. For example a branch on a tree, or some part of a building. If needed, use a plastic bag or something to make the rope slide better.
Tie the other end to the backpack.
You can now fill the backpack until it can lift the water on the other end.
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You don't even really need a liter container. Just read the flow through rate on the tap to determine how long you need to fill the bucket or whatever other container.
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On December 17 2008 09:27 L wrote:
liter = kilogram.
Place the suitcase in a plastic container, which has been allows to come to rest in a bathtub filled to the brim with normal water. catch water which runs off in a cut in half dryer tube, and use it to fill milk cartons or what not to count the amount of liters of runoff. Once you've hit 7 2L cartons, switch to a 1L carton for the next addition and you should come up slightly below 15kg due to a tiny bit of extra water being siphoned off due to surface tension.
if you dont want to set up the mess with catching all the overflowing water, you could instead add the backpack until it floats (let the overflowing water go down the drain) and then see how much you need to add afterwards to refill the tub.
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but doesn't water displacement measure volume? wouldn't you just be finding the weight of the suitcase if it was full of water? unless you know the density of its contents. edit: o wait, i totally missed the "put it in a plastic container" part. my bad.
though if you have a long surface, such as a ironing board or support boards for your matress, you could try to make your own scale using 15L of water on one side and the luggage on the other.
water - - suitcase
(_)(_)..........[__]
```````````^``````````` <- macgyvered board
too bad i can't lend you my awesome portable xscale
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On December 17 2008 09:58 Not_Computer wrote:but doesn't water displacement measure volume? wouldn't you just be finding the weight of the suitcase if it was full of water? unless you know the density of its contents. though if you have a long surface, such as a ironing board or support boards for your matress, you could try to make your own scale using 15L of water on one side and the luggage on the other. water - - suitcase (_)(_)..........[__] ```````````^``````````` <- macgyvered board too bad i can't lend you my awesome portable xscale
u want some gold?
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but doesn't water displacement measure volume? Not if you do it in the method I prescribed.
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There is a trick using paper on your car to check the weight when u put it under your tires and measure the dirt. I forget how it works, maybe can be applied to other things as well.
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Mark a line on the floor. Hold the suitcase and jump staight up in the air. In mid air you push both the suitcase and yourself backwards. As we all know, the momentum is always preserved. So the equation is p1=p2=m1*v1x=m2*v2x. Where m1 is the mass of the person doing the experiment, m2 is the weight of the luggage, v1x is the velocity in x-direction of the person and v2x is the velocity of the luggage in the x-direction. To obtain the velocities, if you don't have a speed-sensor, you have to derivate the measurable position, dx1(t)/dt=x1-0/(t1-0)=x1/t1 where t1 is the time it took to travel the distance x1. Easiest way to make it time-independent is if you can make both object land at the same time. This yields the equation: m2=m1*x1/x2. This all of course assumes zero air resistance, or at least that the air resistance is the same for both the objects. Which it will not be as it has been proven that air resistance is a viscous non-linear effect (e.g. proportional to the square velocity, v^2).
A more serious suggestion is to just use a board that rests on a cylinder (glass bottle) and put on a known weight, m1 (suggestible a person) on one side at distance x1 from the middle and the luggage with weight m2 at distance x2 from the middle so that the system is in equilibrium and the board is horizontal. This will give the weight of the luggage m2=m1*x1/x2. Much easier to measure and does not involve air resistance.
Edit: Sorry my second suggestion was already posted...
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/luciferbw88/hahatheanswer.jpg)
