How to Weigh an Elephant?

By: Thomas Yau-Leung Yeh MD

The massive, red, half-moon shaped palace gates swung open. Two of the largest animals the crowd has ever seen marched into the square. The King of Siam had presented a pair of elephants to the Emperor of China. Ten years old Xiao-Jin and his friends wiggled their way to the front. He saw the elephants ears flapping back and forth like banana leaves. Pairs of long white horns stuck out of each side of their mouths. The handlers had the elephants picked up heavy logs with their snake-like noses as easily as one would pick up a chopstick. The Emperor wanted to find the weight of the elephants. The Minister of Education suggested building a large balance

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scale so that the elephant would stand on one side of the scale and put enough rocks on the other side until both sides were balanced. Then they could weigh the rocks one by one and add up all the weights together to get the weight of the elephant. The Emperor ordered Fan-Tung the Chief Carpenter to do so. Fan-Tung said that since the crossbeam of the scale had to support twice the weigh of the elephant, he would need the strongest lumber, which came from trees high up in the mountains in the south. It would take at least two months to get the timber here. Upon hearing that it would take two months to build a scale to weigh the elephants, Xiao-Jin turned to his friends and boasted that he had a much faster way. Not believing that XiaoJin could have a better plan than all the court officials, they poked fun at him. Flushed with anger, Xiao-Jin yelled out above

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the jeers of his friends: I will wager my head that I could find the weight of the elephants before sundown. Fan-Tung walked by and overheard Xiao-Jin. Fan-Tung was not sure that even with the strongest timber, he could build a scale strong enough to hold twice the weight of an elephant. However, he did not have any better idea. First, Fan-Tung wanted to test Xiao-Jins sincerity. So he looked at Xiao-Jin sternly and said, Are you willing to stand by what you have just said? If you were found to make empty boast in front of a court official, you will be severely punished. Xiao-Jin was taken back that the Chief Carpenter had overheard his boasting, but he was sure that his plan would work. So he replied firmly, I will stand by what Ive said. Fan-Tung stared at Xiao-Jin for a long while before he said, Alright, we will try it your way. What is your plan? We are in

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the same boat together now. If you failed, there will be two heads in jeopardy, yours and mine. Xiao Ming suggested that first they lead the elephants to the river. With the palace guards preparing the way and the crowd following behind, the handlers lead the elephants to the river. Along the way, Fan-Tung was wondering if Xiao-Jin knew what he was doing. Xiao-Jin had the elephant get into a large boat moored by the river. After everyone left the boat, Xiao Ming jumped in, leaned over the side and marked the water level on the boat. Then he had the elephant got out and loaded the boat with rocks until the water reached Xiao-Jins mark, with him still in the boat. The total weight of all the rocks would be the weight of the elephant. By this time, the news of a young boy weighing the elephants by the river had reached back to the palace. The

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Emperor came down to see for himself. Recognizing Xiao-Jins potential, The Emperor granted him a generous allowance and appointed him to the royal academy that was reserved only for princes and nobles. Fan-Tung saved himself two months of headache.

Hands-on: Fill the large pot halfway with water. Put a plastic bowl with the weigh object (e.g. scissor) inside the pot. Mark the water level at the side of the plastic bowl. Be careful not to push down or pull up on the bowl as you mark the level. Now remove the object and put in the pennies one by one until the water reaches the same marking. Count the pennies. That will be the weigh of the object in penny units. You may reverse the process, starting with an empty bowl, put a mark at the side for each additional 10 pennies placed in

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the bowl and label the marking as: 10, 20, etc. Now, this bowl with markings becomes a scale. As you put an item into the bowl that is floating on the water, you may read the weight of that item in penny units by comparing the water level to the marking on the bowl.