# Does our weight depend on the floor on which the weighing machine is placed?

Any weighing machine records our weight by calculating the normal reaction that it applies on our body. So when we place the weighing machine on a smooth bedsheet, we must read a weight whose magnitude will be less than what when the machine is placed on a floor. Am I right? If yes, then we must ensure the machine is placed on the hardest possible surface to get a more accurate value. Am I correct? This being the case, what I have been thinking about my weight all these years is actually wrong (they are wrong, as the weight depends on the type of floor too).

I am attaching the pictures. One with a weighing machine on a floor and another on a bed sheet.

• @user3219492 Where do you get those numbers from? And also remember that the pillow is slowing down the motion, not speeding it up - when you jump onto a pillow, it compressed and you fall a bit down into the pillow. Afterwards all is still again. Nothing moves. So there is no $a$ anywhere. – Steeven Nov 26 '16 at 10:04