In the produce-section of my neighborhood Walmart, there's a little scale with a computer---where you can weigh the produce you've selected to print-up a little price-tag you can stick to the produce in order to 'save time at checkout.' (I think I discussed it here earlier.) Today I had to buy some bananas. I selected a bunch and laid it down (sort of 'the long way') on the scale. More out of curiosity than anything else, I picked up the bananas and laid the bunch back on the scale 'the deep way' (stem-pointing-up instead of stem-lying-sideways). It weighed 0.01 pounds-less. I thought, "Cool!" and printed-up that tag. And the tag said the bananas were 0.01 pounds-even-less than that! (i.e. the first reading had been something-like 1.09 and the tag said 1.07). Is that really how weight works?
It's likely that the reading was different due to the pressure distribution on the scale. The bananas on their side would have spread the pressure out somewhat whilst laying them upwards will have concentrated the pressure into a smaller area. Thanks for sharing this though, I'll be sure to try this for myself next time I'm shopping for fruit and veg!
