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I asked a physics question about a scale tipping over and asked Which way does the scale tip? I was later corrected that I should have asked whether the scale would tip down or tip up. So it made me wonder, what the correct way of asking such question would have been?

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  • Which side weighs more.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 17:58

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I think that the problem here is that 'scale' is not really the right word for the device in question. Your device is a balance.

In contrast, 'scale' can mean one of two things in this context:

  1. One of the two pans in a balance.
  2. A device for measuring weight.

A balance tips left or right. A scale tips up or down. (Unless, as brasshat suggested, your scale was teetering on the edge of a table; in this case 'tip' would have a slightly different meaning.)

So I would say that any of the following are acceptable answers to your physics question:

  • The balance tips to the right.
  • The right scale tips down.
  • The left scale tips up.

That being said, I think it is not uncommon for people to nevertheless use 'scale' to refer to a balance. A search of Google Books shows that you would not be the first person to say that a scale tips to the right/left.

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This is a case where more information is needed, as when used in relation to a scale, "tip" may mean more than one thing. For example, if the scale was on the edge of a table, and tipped so that it fell to the floor, it could not "tip up".

If the scale is being used, if it's an older balance beam scale, it always tips so that the heavier object is down

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