If a person stands on the scale with one foot and weighs 110 lbs, what does he weigh with both feet on the scale?
Answer (3)
His weight doesn't depend on the area of his contact with the scale.
If it did, then we would see differences in our weight when we wear tennis shoes, fancy shoes, snow boots, socks, and flip-flops. What really happens is that any difference we see is only the difference in the weight of whatever we're wearing on our feet. It has nothing to do with how much of the scale our feet cover.
It doesn't matter whether you stand on the scale with both feet, one foot, or on tippy toes, on one finger, or on your head. Your weight reads the same.
The weight displayed by a bathroom scale would be the same 110lbs whether a person stands on it with one foot or both feet, because scales measure the force of gravity on a person's total mass, which does not change with the number of feet they use to stand on the scale.
If a person stands on the scale with one foot and weighs 110lbs, the weight they would register on the scale with both feet on the scale would still be 110lbs. This is because bathroom scales measure the force due to gravity on the mass of the individual. Whether a person stands with one foot or both feet on the scale, the total mass of the person being acted upon by gravity has not changed. Hence, the scale measures the combined force of gravity on that person's mass, which remains consistent regardless of how many feet they use to stand on it.
Bathroom scales are designed to measure the weight of objects and display this in terms of mass for convenience, as mass is a constant quantity unlike weight which can change with location, such as on the moon where gravity is weaker. Therefore, standing on a scale with one foot does not change your actual mass or weight; it only changes how the weight is distributed on the surface of the scale. When standing on two feet, the distribution is even, but the reading of 110lbs remains the same.
A person weighing 110 pounds with one foot on the scale will weigh the same, 110 pounds, when both feet are on the scale. The measurement of weight does not change with the position of the feet on the scale. Weight is the force due to gravity acting on the person's mass, which remains constant in these cases.
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