How would you weigh your arm?

I’m just wondering. If you had to weigh your arm, how would you do it?

How accurate do you need to be?

Determine its mass as a percentage of the whole, and then simply do the math. Failing that, saw it off and put it on the scale.

Fairly accurate. Let’s say you had to find out if one of your arms weighed more than the other.

Which arm do you want to weigh? Trying to impress tash again, huh?

Yeah, this brings me to my next question, what kind of resources are at one’s disposal?
Unlimited?
Like Zoidberg said, use some kind of scanner to determine the exact percentage of overall mass, and do the math.
Around the house?
Stick it in a full tub of water and determine the displacement, then go to the market and get enough bone-in pig leg to equal the displacement and then weigh it.

Fairly accurate. Let’s say you had to find out if one of your arms weighed more than the other.[/quote]

Sometimes I wake up sleeping on my arm. I must have clamped-off some nerve and lost any feeling in my arm, and I was not able to move it either. Pretty freaky, but if one wanted to determine its weight, that would be a good opportunity, since all supporting muscles are without any strength. Maybe you could get the same effect by putting a belt around your arm and wait until it is numb, then you could put it on a scale. But I don’t really recomment it.

Oh yeah, I meant to mention that you can’t cut your arm off. That’s cheating (not to mention that you might regret it).

You wouldn’t need to equal the displacement.

eg arm displaces 10litres, pig leg displaces 5 litres and weighs 5.5kg. Arm weighs 11Kg.

But we’re not pigs, and even if we were we would all be different pigs.

The density of one person’s arm is different from another’s. I’ve got skinny little arms, therefore a higher percentage of it is bone than in, say, the cheif’s arms.

Muscle is denser than fat too.

Hmmmm. Assuming your own two arms have an identical make-up then you wouldn’t need to actually weigh your arms to compare them. They would displace different amounts of water.

But I guess in theory they could have the same volume and one still be heavier. It would be down to how much fat vs muscle where was in the arm.

Step 1. Date dingo ugly man or woman.
Step 2. Follow normal dingo ugly procedures.
Step 3. Carry arm from bed to bathroom.
Step 4. Place on scale.
Step 5. Adjust for blood loss.

What do you guys mean by determining the percentage of overall mass and doing the math? Don’t you have to know how much your arm weighs first (before you would be able to divide that number by your overall mass to get the percentage)?

I like the immersion in water and then using the pig leg idea though. Depending on your resources, you might even be able to use some other human arm (good manners would suggest that this arm should come from the body of a person who wasn’t using the arm anymore – maybe a medical school cadaver).

H

Fairly accurate. Let’s say you had to find out if one of your arms weighed more than the other.[/quote]

Sometimes I wake up sleeping on my arm. I must have clamped-off some nerve and lost any feeling in my arm, and I was not able to move it either. Pretty freaky, but if one wanted to determine its weight, that would be a good opportunity, since all supporting muscles are without any strength. Maybe you could get the same effect by putting a belt around your arm and wait until it is numb, then you could put it on a scale. But I don’t really recomment it.[/quote]

And then when you’re finished, you could give yourself a Stranger!

Sit with your back against a board, wall, etc. Maybe even strap your shoulders back. You need to get the joints equal distances from the wall, or touching it. I guess that doing something to paralyse the arms (temporarily) would help prevent any distortion of the results.

A hanging scale on some sort of frame, which is parallel to the wall, could be used to weigh each arm. It wouldn’t actually measure the weight of the arm, because it is also supported by your shoulder joint, but it would measure a fixed percentage of the weight. As long as the distance between the scale and the relative joint remains constant then the percentage would remain constant too. So you wouldn’t accurately measure the weight, but you would accurately compare the two arms.

If you immersed your whole body in water and measured the displacement and then placed your arm in water and measured the displacement, you would have a relative measure of arm to body weight. Apply this ratio to your body weight measured in pounds or kilos and “hey presto!”.

Ah.

Does ‘arm’ include blood?

If so, will the weight vary with blood flow? Does blood pressure rise during exercise, or drop when you get a hard-on? What about while spanking the monkey?

With lungs full of air, or empty? After eating, or while hungry? With or without appendix? With or without erection?

Body mass and displacement can vary, whereas your arm is going to be pretty constant.

Paralyse your arms and have someone put you in a zero-g environment. Might work underwater.

A known force applied to your free-floating arm will cause it to move by a measurable amount, from which you can calculate the mass. Or would the readings be buggered up by how tight or loose your muscles are?

Stick it on a scale, place so that all the weight is supported by the scales and not by your shoulder.

Are you looking to work out its weight or mass ?

Just weigh your whole self and then subtract the weight of all your other parts.

[quote]Fox wrote:
If you immersed your whole body in water and measured the displacement and then placed your arm in water and measured the displacement, you would have a relative measure of arm to body weight. Apply this ratio to your body weight measured in pounds or kilos and “hey presto!”.

With lungs full of air, or empty? After eating, or while hungry? With or without appendix? With or without erection?
[/quote]

It doesn’t matter except for the lungs, better to do it whilst breathing out. That way it is easier to fully immerse yourself. The scale measurement can be done directly after immersion and a towel off.