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scale science definition
- One of the small thin plates forming the outer covering of fish, reptiles, and certain other animals.
- A similar part, such as one of the minute structures overlapping to form the covering on the wings of butterflies and moths.
- A small, thin, usually dry plant part, such as one of the protective leaves that cover a tree bud or one of the structures that contain the reproductive organs on the cones of a conifer.
- A plant disease caused by scale insects.
- An ordered system of numbering or indexing that is used as a reference standard in measurement, in which each number corresponds to some physical quantity. Some scales, such as temperature scales, have equal intervals; other scales, such as the Richter scale, are arranged as a geometric progression.
- An instrument or a machine for weighing.
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