Sulfuric acid percentage values and sodium bisulfate alternative?

[Donald Qualls]

It first requests the 100 gram weight and then the 200 gram weight before it will go to the PASS indicator. I haven't had a scale that calibrated like that before.

That sounds like the firmware is confirming the slope of the strain gage readings as well as known values. This is better for things like detecting damage to the sensors.

 

[darkroommike]

But if you use a US cent (aka penny), be sure it's new and look up the correct weight -- they changed from copper/nickel (3.1 gram when new) to copper plated zinc (2.?? g) in 1982. Weight may have changed again when they removed the Lincoln Memorial in 2009 (but probably didn't).

I said a nickel. The new penny is a fiat coin like some of that post WW2 European garbage from the early 50's.

 

[darkroommike]

Thanks, darkroommike and Donald

On my old scale the nickel measures 5 grams exactly though on my new one it measures 4.96 grams. The nickel isn't new. This new scale does a double calibration. It first requests the 100 gram weight and then the 200 gram weight before it will go to the PASS indicator. I haven't had a scale that calibrated like that before.

Well I said a new nickel, and 0.06 variance isn't too bad either.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I said a nickel. The new penny is a fiat coin like some of that post WW2 European garbage from the early 50's.

All American coin and currency has been fiat since the gold and silver standards were eliminated -- shortly before I was born, in the latter case. The US cent composition was changed because the metal value in the old ones exceeded the face of the coin -- as had previously been the case with the quarter, half dollar, and silver dollar. Given the price of nickel metal, I'm surprised the US nickel hasn't had the same treatment yet.

This, however, has nothing to do with the weights of the coins as a standard. Having alternatives to a new nickel is helpful because many of us in today's world don't carry change (I have cash on my person only in relation to purchasing lottery tickets, for instance, and I've had the same old worn change in my pocket for months). Not to mention a few milligrams of wear on a new coin is rather hard to see...

 

[darkroommike]

All American coin and currency has been fiat since the gold and silver standards were eliminated -- shortly before I was born, in the latter case. The US cent composition was changed because the metal value in the old ones exceeded the face of the coin -- as had previously been the case with the quarter, half dollar, and silver dollar. Given the price of nickel metal, I'm surprised the US nickel hasn't had the same treatment yet.

This, however, has nothing to do with the weights of the coins as a standard. Having alternatives to a new nickel is helpful because many of us in today's world don't carry change (I have cash on my person only in relation to purchasing lottery tickets, for instance, and I've had the same old worn change in my pocket for months). Not to mention a few milligrams of wear on a new coin is rather hard to see...

My Dad was a coin collector (and I helped him grade coins when a sprout), telling a new uncirculated coin from one that has been even lightly used is not that hard. And the composition of the nickel is such that it is the hardest, most durable coin in circulation. I think I will buy a roll of new nickels before they too are discontinued just for contingency scale use. The penny is supposedly no longer made but has not yet been discontinued. BTW I carry 4 quarters in my pocket at all times for parking meters in my fair city, don't need them often but handy to have, since not all of our meters have been modernized to take a debit card.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I carry 4 quarters in my pocket at all times for parking meters in my fair city,

Winston Salem, NC, has recently converted all downtown parking meters to electronic payment only -- they no longer accept coins.

 

[darkroommike]

Winston Salem, NC, has recently converted all downtown parking meters to electronic payment only -- they no longer accept coins.

The only "improvement" to the meters in my fair city was to increase the rates. To be fair, they had some electronic debit only meters but they failed in Iowa winters.