
[Middle English, from Latin scālae, ladder.]
scalable scal'a·ble adj.Background
The traditional bathroom scale is used to measure a person's body weight. It is based on a spring system that uses the weight of the person to depress a lever, which in turn rotates a sprocket attached to the dial. The dial rotates until it stops, and a plastic marker marks the person's weight. A home-use bathroom scale has a margin of error of ±0.25 lb (±0.12 kg). Scales for bathrooms or kitchens are generally designed as spring balances.
History
Units of measurements have been used for all of antiquity. People have always used some type of set standard for trade. The first known measurement device was used by the Romans 2,000 years ago. They devised an equal beam scale which was shaped like the letter T with both arms measuring 7.4 in (18.8 cm) wide. Attached to each arm were metal pans that were typically 1.5 in (4 cm) in diameter.
The first known unit of weight was the wheat seed. The ancient Romans and Greeks used this standard to measure any other object against, generally for barter or trade. For instance, farmers would bring their crops to sell and they would be weighed against the known standard of wheat grain. X-amount of produce was equal to X-amount of grain needed to maintain the equilibrium of the balance. The Arabs improved on these techniques and established weight standards for gold, silver, and gems.
By the thirteenth century trade had become much more widespread, but people in different parts of the world (or even within the same country) used different standards of measurement. King Edward I of England established a base standard of measurement to which objects or materials could be compared to. This standard soon traveled through trade and became somewhat acceptable in other parts of the world.
In 1793, the French government devised a system based on a line running along the ground through Paris that measured the distance from the North Pole to the Equator. The French called this the metric system. People were unfamiliar with this system and it was not fully enforced until 1837 when it became the standard in European countries.
Scales themselves continued to evolve to meet both the distributor and customer's needs. Customer's wanted to be able to count on the accuracy of the distributor's scales to make sure that they were not being cheated. The first scales used a simple balance beam to weigh an object against a known standard.
The first spring balance was brought into widespread use in the eighteenth century. In Bilston, England Richard Salter began making what is today known as a fisherman's scale which used a spring balance to measure weight. The Salter brand was also the first company in England to marked bathroom scales. Modern home scales have evolved from these early industrial prototypes. Today, the scale is based on the same spring balance idea.
Raw Materials
The case of the spring scale is manufactured from stainless steel or aluminum. The interior is composed of metal springs, pins, gears, and plastic. The gears can be made from aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, stainless, steel, nickel silver, monel, zinc, iron, or plastic. The non-slip mat is formed from a mix of poly vinyl chloride and rubber.
Design
There are many different types of scales; solar, electronic, digital, and spring to name a few. The scales may also differ on what they measure. Some scales are able to measure a person's body fat ratio. The color and size of scales vary greatly to meet all customer needs.
A typical spring scale is comprised of weight transmitting levers, a weight sensing mechanism, and dial enclosed in a metal casing. Generally, the scale is equipped with a non-slip pad on the platform so that the person does not slip and fall off the scale.
The Manufacturing
Process
Putting it all together
Quality Control
The parts used to manufacture the scale are checked for defects. Any defective parts that can be salvaged are removed and reused. Parts that are extremely damaged are discarded or recycled. The workers check the calibration of the scale against a known weight before it is packaged. Typically the scale should be able to detect weight within 0.25 lb (0.12 kg).
Byproducts/Waste
Any excess or defective parts are assessed for quality and then either reused or discarded.
The Future
As technology advances, so does the accuracy and application of scales. Today scales can measure not just weight but also body fat. These scales send a mild electrical current through the person's feet and up the rest of the body. The more quickly the signal travels through the body, the less fat. Software is also being developed that allows the scale to keep track of a person's weight loss or gain. Some are even able to track the weights of more than one person. These systems will be able to hook up to software on the home computer to better track weight loss or gain.
Where to Learn More
Other
Bodytrends.Com Web Page. December 2001. <http://www.bodytrends.com>.
ReallyFit.Com Web Page. December 2001.<http://www.reallyfit.com>.
Salter Scales Online. December 2001.<http://www.salterhousewares.com>.
[Article by: Deirdre S. Blanchfield]
As a piece of music progresses, it typically outlines a set of pitches by repeatedly sounding a subset of all the possible notes. When these notes are rearranged into ascending or descending order, they are called a musical scale.
There is often a range of pitches that will be heard as the same. Perhaps the trumpet plays middle C a bit flat, while the guitar plays a bit sharp, in accordance with the artistic requirements of the musical context. The mind hears both pitches as the same note, C, and the limits of acceptability are far cruder than the ear's powers of resolution. This suggests a kind of categorical perception, where a continuum of possible stimuli (in this case, pitch) is perceived as consisting of a small number of disjoint classes. Thus scales partition pitch space into disjoint chunks. See also Musical instruments; Pitch; Sensation.
In the modern Western tradition, scales are standardized subsets of the 12-tone equal temperament (abbreviated 12-tet, and also called the chromatic scale) in which each octave is divided into 12 (approximately) equal sounding divisions. These are further classified into major and minor depending on the exact ordering of the intervals, and are classified into modes depending on the starting point. Historically, however, scales based on 12-tet are fairly recent. In addition, other cultures use musical scales that are quite different. See also Tuning.
Expandable. Referring to hardware or software, the term is a popular buzzword in the IT world. A "highly scalable" device or application implies that it can handle a large increase in users, workload or transactions without undue strain.
There May Be a Price
Scalable does not always mean that expansion is free. Extra-cost hardware or software may indeed be required to handle more work. Nevertheless, scalability is a positive feature of a product that is sold to fast-growing companies, because it implies that growth can be accommodated without having to make major changes or learn new procedures. See scale.
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Idioms beginning with scale:
scale down
In addition to the idiom beginning with scale, also see tip the balance (scale); turn the tables (scales).
(DOD, NATO) The ratio or fraction between the distance on a map, chart, or photograph and the corresponding distance on the surface of the Earth. See also conversion scale; graphic scale; photographic scale; principal scale.
The climber approached the scalable slope of the mountain.
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A system of marks set at fixed intervals, used as a standard for measurement.
The scale ratio of some sort of model which represents an original proportionally is the ratio of a linear dimension of the model to the same dimension of the original. Examples include a 3-dimensional scale model of a building or the scale drawings of the elevations or plans of a building. In such cases the scale is dimensionless and exact throughout the model or drawing. The scale can be expressed in four ways: in words (a lexical scale), as a ratio, as a fraction and as a graphical (bar) scale. Thus on an architect's drawing we might read
and a bar scale would also normally appear on the drawing.
In general a representation may involve more than one scale at the same time. For example a drawing showing a new road in elevation might use different horizontal and vertical scales. An elevation of a bridge might be annotated with arrows with a length proportional to a force loading, as in 1 cm to 1000 newtons: this is an example of a dimensional scale. A weather map at some scale may be annotated with wind arrows at a dimensional scale of 1 cm to 20 mph.
Map scales require careful discussion. A town plan may be constructed as an exact scale drawing but for larger areas a map projection is necessary and no projection can represent the Earth's surface at a uniform scale: in general the scale of a projection depends on position and direction. The variation of scale may be considerable in small scale maps which may cover the globe. In large scale maps of small areas the variation of scale may be insignificant for most purposes but it is always present. The scale of a map projection must be interpreted as a nominal scale. (The usage large and small in relation to map scales relates to their expressions as fractions. The fraction 1/10,000 used for a local map is much larger than 1/100,000,000 used for a global map. There is no hard and fixed dividing line between small and large scales.)
In the general case of a differentiable bijection, the concept of scale can, to some extent, still be used, but it may depend on location and direction. It can be described by the Jacobian matrix. The modulus of the matrix times a unit vector is the scale in that direction. The non-linear case applies for example if a curved surface like part of the Earth's surface is mapped to a plane, see scale (map).
In the case of an affine transformation the scale does not depend on location but it depends in general on direction. If the affine transformation can be decomposed into isometries and a transformation given by a diagonal matrix, we have directionally differential scaling and the diagonal elements (the eigenvalues) are the scale factors in two or three perpendicular directions.
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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - skæl
v. tr. - skrabe skæl af, rense
v. intr. - dækkes af skæl
idioms:
2.
n. - vægt
v. tr. - veje, måle, veje af
v. intr. - veje
idioms:
3.
n. - skala
v. tr. - bestige, klatre op ad
v. intr. - veje, veje ind, ordne efter en skala
Nederlands (Dutch)
weegschaal, toonladder, schub, ketelsteen, (huid) schilfer, schaal, schaalverdeling, maatstaf, schil, wegen, beklimmen, opklauteren, schilferen, (af)bladderen, schrapen
Français (French)
1.
n. - (Zool) écaille, dépôt de calcaire, tartre
v. tr. - écailler
v. intr. - s'écailler
idioms:
2.
n. - balance
v. tr. - peser avec une balance
v. intr. - avoir un poids de
idioms:
3.
n. - échelle (des valeurs)
v. tr. - escalader, gravir
v. intr. - varier selon l'échelle de
Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Schuppe, Kesselstein, Zahnstein
v. - abschuppen, von Zahnstein od. Kesselstein befreien
idioms:
2.
n. - Waage
v. - wiegen
idioms:
3.
n. - Maßstab, Skala, Ausmaß
v. - maßstabsgetreu anfertigen, abstufen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κλίμακα, σκάλα, (όργανο με) διαβάθμιση ή βαθμονόμηση, ταξινόμηση (κατά κλίμακες), πουρί, φολίδα, λέπι, (ιατρ.) οδοντική πλάκα, (καθομ.) ωρομίσθιο συλλογικών συμβάσεων, (πληθ.) ζυγαριά, ζυγός
v. - απολεπίζω/-ομαι, αφαιρώ την οδοντική πλάκα, πουριάζω, σκαρφαλώνω, κλιμακώνω, διαβαθμίζω, ζυγίζω/-ομαι
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
scalare, pesare, sfaldarsi, grattare, squamare, scala, scaglia, deposito, squama
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - escala (f), proporção (f), concha (f)
v. - escalar
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
масштаб, размер, чашка весов, весы, чешуя, накипь, шкала, гамма, уровень, весить, взвешивать, чистить, шелушиться, соскабливать, покрывать накипью, изображать в определенном масштабе, вычислять размах, подниматься, перелезать
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - escama, (pez) escamar, lámina
v. tr. - quitar las escamas, decapar, escamar
v. intr. - descascarillarse, desconcharse, soltar las escamas, descamarse, formar sedimento
idioms:
2.
n. - balanza, báscula
v. tr. - pesar
v. intr. - pesarse
idioms:
3.
n. - escala
v. tr. - subir, escalar
v. intr. - escalar, formar escalera, subir en escala
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - skala, måttstock, gradindelning, tariff, vågskål, våg, fjäll, flaga, pannsten, tandsten
v. - väga, avbilda skalenligt, klättra upp för, ordna efter en skala, ha samma skala, fjälla, rensa, skrapa bort, skala, flagna
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 刻度, 刻度尺, 尺度, 比率, 攀登, 用缩尺绘制, 按比例排列, 到达...的顶点
idioms:
2. 天平, 秤, 天平盘, 秤盘, 把...过秤, 按重量把...分成均等部分, 重
3. 鳞, 鱼鳞, 鳞状物, 介壳, 障眼物, 刮去...的鳞片, 剥去...的介壳, 剥落
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 刻度, 刻度尺, 尺度, 比率
v. tr. - 攀登, 用縮尺繪製, 按比例排列, 到達...的頂點
v. intr. - 攀登
idioms:
2.
n. - 鱗, 魚鱗, 鱗狀物, 介殼, 障眼物
v. tr. - 刮去...的鱗片, 剝去...的介殼
v. intr. - 剝落
3.
n. - 天平, 秤, 天平盤, 秤盤
v. tr. - 把...過秤, 按重量把...分成均等部分
v. intr. - 重
한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 비늘, (가열된 철 표면에 생기는) 산화물의 박편, 딱지
v. tr. - ~에서 비늘을 벗기다, (포신 따위의) 내부를 손질하다, ~을 비늘로 뒤덮다
v. intr. - 벗겨져 떨어지다, 물때가 끼다
2.
n. - 눈금, (지도 등의) 축척, 규모
v. tr. - (산 등에) 기어 오르다, 일정한 비율로 만들다, (기준에 따라) 평가하다
v. intr. - 사다리로 오르다, 점점 높아지다, 비례하다
idioms:
3.
n. - 저울, 천칭자리, 가치, 평가의 기준
v. tr. - 저울로 가늠하다, (마음 속으로) 비교하다, 무게가 ~이다
v. intr. - 무게가 나가다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 目盛り, 尺度, ものさし, 比率, 規模, 段階, 階級, 記数法, 天秤, はかり, うろこ, 湯あか, 歯石, 目盛, スケール
v. - 登る, 縮尺で描く, 縮尺で作る, 目方がある, てんびんで量る, …のうろこをとる, 殻をとる, ぼろぼろとはがれる, うろこで覆う
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) قشرة جافه, ميزان (فعل) ينزع حراشف ألسمك, يزن بميزان
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - קשקש (של דג או נחש), קליפה, אבנית, רסיס חלודה, שכבה של פקעת, משקע (בקומקום)
v. tr. - הסיר קשקשים
v. intr. - כיסה באבנית, יצר קשקשים
n. - מאזניים, משקל (לשקילה)
v. tr. - שקל
v. intr. - שקל
n. - סולם, לוח-מעלות, סרגל, קנה-מידה, לוח מכוייל, שיעור, מידה
v. tr. - שרטט לפי קנה-מידה
v. intr. - השתנה לפי קנה-מידה
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