Is there a term/study for our ability to feel a range of weight of objects? For example, if you pick up a brick, you can definitely feel its weight. But if you put a small feather in someone's hand, she couldn't possibly feel any weight. So there is a threshold. What area of study covers this?
My search strategies with Google are generating mostly products for weight control. The closest I've found is the somatosensory system, but that's not really what I'm looking for.
arildno
Jul23-08, 12:15 PM
Was it Fischer's or Wenzel's law it was called?? Frankly, I don't remember.
However:
The basic relationship that connects perception of weight and the actual weight, is that an increase in the perception is proportional to the RELATIVE increase in actual weight rather than the absolute increase.
(i.e, if you have a 1-gram object in your hand getting another, you'll definitely notice that there was an increase, but if you held a kilogram in your hand and it was added a 1-gram object, you'd barely notice the increase)
That perceptions are sensitive to relative alterations, rather than to absolute ones is found elsewhere as well, the best known being sound, which is measured in Db.
OAQfirst
Jul23-08, 12:21 PM
Okay. This would be in the domain of mechanoreception then?
And thank you!
arildno
Jul23-08, 12:22 PM
No problem.
It is called the Weber-Fechner law, and as a start (although I don't generally recommend wikipedia), you may read this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber%E2%80%93Fechner_law
OAQfirst
Jul23-08, 12:26 PM
That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
And my God. Google had this topic indexed but three minutes after I posted it.