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 all the grains of sand and then divide that number by 121, because of their tube they know the weight of all the sand. Take the answer of their division and count the number of grains of sand out and use those for the weight.

Posted by Jon on 2003-04-14 07:47:47