Crazy Question about Shot Put Weight

[u/jackdutton42]

Before a meet, I take my implements in the house so my throwers won't have to throw cold shots. In the meet two weeks ago, my implements weighed a little heavy. Then, we had a meet after Spring Break, and our implements sat in a cold shed for ten days. They weighed under.

Does the temperature of an implement affect how much it weighs?

[u/UnnamedRealities]

The cold shot will weigh less, but the amount will be so infinitesimally small that it won't even be possible to tell the difference on a scale costing $10,000. So for practical purposes they should weigh the same regardless of temperature.

This 2021 paper was written by scientists for an audience of scientists so it's not an easy read, but it goes into details. Testing the influence of temperature on mass at high temperatures

Were they weighed on the same scale both times? If not, the two scales might have been calibrated differently. If it was on the same scale, maybe something caused it to be miscalibrated over the two week period. Or if you weighed the shots outside and it was an electrical scale (I assume so) maybe the temperature of the battery or internal components are sensitive to temperature and that caused it to become inaccurate.

For perspective, what did they weigh when they were a little heavy and what did they weigh when they were a little light? And what temperature do you estimate for both times?

[u/jackdutton42 → u/UnnamedRealities]

Warm 12.44 lbs. Cold 11.88 lbs

[u/porkchop487 → u/jackdutton42]

Definitely mis calibrated scale. Being hot or cold doesn't add over half a pound of mass

[u/PwnCall → u/jackdutton42]

Sounds like you lost some mass off of them. What are they now?

[u/UnnamedRealities → u/jackdutton42]

Wow. Almost 5% difference. It's likely due to one of the explanations I shared earlier.

[u/jasonhall1016]

No, mass remains the same despite any temperature differences