Scales and balances are machines that are used to weigh objects. These terms are often confused with one another, and they are used interchangeably. However, the process by which this is done is different from one another. Scales work to measure weight through the use of a tension force of constraint. The scale is used to measure the weight of objects.
Scales are sensitive to environmental factors; this makes reading inaccurate. Balance is used to measure the mass of objects. It works by comparing the unknown mass with a known mass. It is not affected by the gravitational force. The reading of a balance remains the same irrespective of the location.
Scales and balances are both known to be types of machines that are used to weigh different objects but the method that they use for weighing can be a bit different. The weighting would be used in order to measure the weight of one object while the balance would be used to measure the weight of two different objects.
For example, people would like to measure how much cotton would amount to apples. The apples will be placed on one end of the balancing scale while the other one will be placed on the other side. Items will be added and removed accordingly so that the two objects will balance each other.