Balance of power (parliament)

With tip the scales is called pictorially a decisive circumstance or a key person in an otherwise balanced situation, especially in a stalemate. The metaphorical phrase wants to make clear that a small cause can have a big effect in certain situations.

For example, the South Schleswig Voter Federation ( SSW) is present due to a special minority regime despite falling below the five-percent hurdle in the state parliament of Schleswig -Holstein. And thus free and non-attached - - When it upon a request for new elections came to a tie between the large groups in 1987, was the only SSW- deputy Karl Otto Meyer called his voting record as to tip the scales.

Origin of name

If the mount points for the scales and the axis of rotation lying in a ( faulty constructed ) beam balance on a straight line and a pointer protrudes upward, the focus of the beam is over the axis of rotation. Now, if the masses of the two scales are the same and the balance arm is horizontal, there is a neutral equilibrium. By a small perturbation can then - because of the weight of the pointer - reduce any of the scales to the ground.

In a properly designed beam balance (see below ) is used, the pointer only the display, but has no influence on the measurement result.