Multiply corner weight by 4

[paul.deitch]

Don't laugh! I'm curious how much our bed and mattress weighs without occupants. Its bloody heavy. Assuming the whole thing has pretty much the same density and one corner weighs 35 Kg on a bathroom scale with all other corners/legs on the floor can I assume that the whole thing weighs 4 times that? Or?

[anonymous-user]

paul.deitch said:

Don't laugh! I'm curious how much our bed and mattress weighs without occupants. Its bloody heavy. Assuming the whole thing has pretty much the same density and one corner weighs 35 Kg on a bathroom scale with all other corners/legs on the floor can I assume that the whole thing weighs 4 times that? Or?

NO, unless somehow you have the top of the scales and the legs at the same height, ie the bed is not tilted or distorted, and you know the mass is perfectly evenly distributed. However, if you find some bits of wood, or books or something to shim the legs level with the top of the scales, then you CAN weigh each corner and add all the measurements up to get a reasonably accurate total

(BTW, i find counting sheep a lot easier than weighing the bed if i am struggling to sleep....... ;-)

[paul.deitch]

No problem getting sleep but it is so heavy that I was thinking of putting wheels under it to make cleaning easier! And of course I don't want the wheels to dig holes in the wooden flooring when used.

[Halmyre]

Max_Torque said:

paul.deitch said:

Don't laugh! I'm curious how much our bed and mattress weighs without occupants. Its bloody heavy. Assuming the whole thing has pretty much the same density and one corner weighs 35 Kg on a bathroom scale with all other corners/legs on the floor can I assume that the whole thing weighs 4 times that? Or?

NO, unless somehow you have the top of the scales and the legs at the same height, ie the bed is not tilted or distorted, and you know the mass is perfectly evenly distributed. However, if you find some bits of wood, or books or something to shim the legs level with the top of the scales, then you CAN weigh each corner and add all the measurements up to get a reasonably accurate total

(BTW, i find counting sheep a lot easier than weighing the bed if i am struggling to sleep....... ;-)

If it's a typical set of scales (height about 3") the difference due to the angle of tilt is only about 1%, but I can't see how he can raise one leg and still have the other three on the floor, unless it's a particularly flexible bedstead.