As far back as the Egyptians (and probably much earlier), civilizations have always needed to compare quantities of goods when trading commodities. One of the earliest records of this surrounds the trade of salt. Specifically, ancient civilizations relied upon displacement of water to calculate volumes of salt being traded. By submerging the commodity in water, they could note exactly how far it caused the water level to rise. Next, once they had estimated the difference in the two water levels, they could approximate the volume of the commodity. However, if there is one thing we know about salt, it’s that it doesn’t handle being submerged in water very well. To circumvent this obvious issue, balances were invented. Although this technology did not initially allow for the calculation of an object’s absolute weight, it did allow for traders to compare the relative weight of two goods. Eventually, this evolved to the point where standard weights and measures could be placed on one side of the scale, to estimate absolute weight, and now to current-day technology that affords us extreme precision and accuracy when measuring weights via advances in digital technology.
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