Front/Rear balance

[Citius]

Could someone please enlighten me why a car I was trying to weight.....would weigh 25g on the front axle and 110g on the rear axle? ( This was when the total weight of the car was 145g.)(Yes I did make sure the car remained level when one axle was on the scale being weighed.)

The grams I have listed here are fictitious. Aren't the front and rear supposed to add up to the total weight of the car? Or is the experience I describe common?

Thanks for your experiences,
Citius

[gimpypaw]

Of course your post got me curious, so I checked out my current car.

Total wt. = 141.6 g

front = 15.9 g
rear = 125.6 g
total= 141.5 g

So I'm only missing .1 g when I weigh the front and rear seperately. My guess is that I didn't have the scale and platform PERFECTLY level, but I was close.

As for your results, it could have something to do with how level the scale to platform was, how level the table your working on is (that will effect a scale, and would alter the scale to platform mix), how far the scale's tray travels when weighted, or a combination of all of the above.

[SpeedGeek]

With the car level, this is impossible by classical physics.

There is always meaurement error like the 0.1 g that gimpy is missing, but 10 g is way too much. You are using an electronic scale?

Something is not right here... the individual weights of each axle should add up to the full weight of the car.

[Parrot Racing]

Wouldn't it also depend on how much of the car was actually on the scale when it was being weighed?

[SpeedGeek]

It doesn't matter how much of the car is on the scale: a force is a force no matter how widely distributed over some area.

The scale might not like it, which brings us back to measurements error.

When I do this, I set the wheels on the scale; first the front wheels, then I move the scale to the back wheels.

The sum is always the total weight of the car.