Is there a machine that measures how hard you punch? can I make a simple one that mesures over 1000 pounds?

Question

I was watching myth busters and they were kicking a force plate...can one be made with simple materials that mesures in the thousands?
I was watching national Geographic fight science and boxers were punching at over 900 pounds others were at over striking at over 2000 pounds…so the machine would have to measure in the thousands…

Answer 1

assuming by 'simple material' you mean no electronics, you can do it with a spring scale that has a peak indicator. the spring scale's main pointer moves to show weight, and a peak indicator is a sliding pointer that moves up with the main pointer, but doesn't move back.
you can get such a scale in the 100 to 200 pounds range easily. so you would make a frame that has the strike pad be 10 times as far from a pivot point as the spring scale.
such a thing would be easy to make out of 2x4s. cheap, but not as accurate as the mythbuster's electronic version.
check out this sketch.
http://i18.tinypic.com/5xg6y6p.jpg

Answer 2

The same kind of thing which is used to measure the momentum(kick)of a bullet should do the trick.Catch the power of the punch in a weighed beam which hangs suspended by two parallel rods or stings from a fixed overhead beam parallel to the moveable beam.All you need now is some simple homemade method wherebye the distance the weighed beam is caused to rise by the punch can be measured.(Bend a piece of wire?).Some calculations would be needed to make a simple chart;these would onlly involve calculating how much energy the bar needed to rise a certain height.

Answer 3

Great.....on a scale of 1-100 you scored 813.

Well that made sense....last time I counted 813 was more than 100.

Answer 4

at my bowling alley hey have a machine where you punch a punching-bag and it tells how hard you hit it on a scale of one to 100.....my best is 813..