Before creating the 5 weights, The ancients had to create a 1 gram weight to measure out all their other weights.

So the ancients had a bunch of super fine sand which was made entirely of the same material, and every grain was its most basic material. They had 121 grams of this sand. They also had a tube which could hold exactly 121 grams of sand, no more, no less.

How do the ancients weigh out 1 gram of sand?

They could count out the number of grains of sand, divide that number by 121, and take that many grains.  Since all the grains are alike, they will have exactly 1/121st of the total sand or one gram. 

Posted by Jay Freymiller on 2005-04-08 14:10:25