wow, a microgram balance. That hack came out about 5 years ago… But in any case, they can be made quite a bit simpler, see http://www.sci-spot.com/Mechanical/balance.htm for an even simpler design; with a digital readout!

Posted at 10:17 am on Sep 27th, 2005 by ...

If you were to take into factor the first and second order frequency repsonse of the newer device to perturbation (such as a sinusoid changing the voltage on the galvanometer) and then use peturbations to weight the sample, you could probably increase the mass resolution by an order of magnitude or more. See http://www.physorg.com/news3533.html for what I’m talking about. Its kind of like a taylor/fourier expansion when weighing things. The DC or constant terms can be used, but more data can be gathered from considering perturbations (higher terms).

Posted at 11:08 am on Sep 27th, 2005 by ADam Shaver

perturbation? my mom caught me doing that once and took my computer away for a week.

Posted at 1:08 pm on Sep 27th, 2005 by weaszel

a wee question: what would one use one of these for? I see that it’s really neat, but for what sort of practical use might this be deployable?

Posted at 11:24 pm on Sep 27th, 2005 by Billytheimpaler

cocaine distribution.

Posted at 12:14 am on Sep 28th, 2005 by ryan

>>Posted Sep 28, 2005, 12:14 AM ET by ryan
>>cocaine distribution.

Correction: Exceedingly accurate small-quantity cocaine distribution

Posted at 10:12 pm on Sep 28th, 2005 by Billytheimpaler

Exactly. It’s so those damn cheapass bitches who waste your time hitting you up for a lousy point don’t get a single goddamn microgram they haven’t paid for.

This ain’t no charity…

Posted at 6:17 am on Sep 29th, 2005 by idlemachine

I would probably say, if it was going to be used in some kind of drug manufacture and distribution, it would probably be LSD. its the only substance where micrograms really matter.

Posted at 11:35 pm on Dec 4th, 2005 by Kiamors