When you lift one foot up so that you're standing on one foot, does the reading change? Does a scale read force or pressure?

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Solution

The scale reads your weight, not the pressure your feet apply. When you lift one foot up, it exerts more pressure, but the scale feels the same force. Both feet down, there is a larger surface area reducing the pressure on the scale, but with one foot up the the surface area is reduced and so the pressure goes up, but in both case the force on the scale is the same. The weight will be the same, the pressure will be different.
Hence, the reading does not change because the scale reads force and not pressure.

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