Calculate the weight of an object using weight of material chart and area of material.

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Calculating the weight of a sheet of material, is something that a rigger must do regularly. For our purposes we will use a chart which already has a calculated weight based on the thickness of the selected material for 1 square feet of area. Please note that this chart is simplifying the weight calculation by volume of the material. If we only have the density of the material, then we would need to calculate the volume of the material first and then multiply by the density. This kind of charts are meant to help speed up the process of the calculation and should only be used for these purposes. Let’s say we have a sheet of steel that is 1/8 of an inch thick. Using the weight of material chart below, I would need to multiply the area of the sheet by 5.1 If my sheet of steel measures 3 feet wide by 5.5 feet in length, We would need to multiply, 3 times, 5.5, times 5.1, for a weight of 84.15 pounds.

Calculating the weight of a sheet of material is quite simple. For our purposes we will use a weight of material chart which already has a calculated weight based on the thickness of the selected material based on the area of the sheet. So since we already have this information we just need to calculate the area of the sheet and multiply it by the value of the material corresponding to the thickness of the material ( i.e., weight chart)

For calculating the area of the sheet , you will need to multiply the length by the width of the material.

  A= Length x Width 

Once you have the area you will need to multiply it by the value on the material corresponding to the thickness desired ( i.e., weight chart) :

    Weight = Area x weight of material on chart corresponding to the thickness of the material (i.e., weight chart)

    Weight  = Area (FT2) x weight in LBS/FT2

For example, for a sheet of 1/8” steel measuring 3’ x 5’ 6” the calculated weight would be :

Weight  = Area (FT2) x weight in LBS/FT2

Weight  = L x W x weight in LBS/FT2

Weight  = 3ft x 5.5 ft x 5.1 LBS/FT2

Weight   = 84.15 LBS