will a magnet ruin a digital scale?

I have a digital kitchen scale. My bro. in law put a small magnet on it, and now its not measuring below 4g.. Is it ruined.. NOTE THIS is my first time using it, I got it for christmas.. help

The metal in the scale has probably been magnetized and thus there is a "new" force that is always acting between the plate and the body.
Can you "re-zero" the scale ?

You can de-magnitize things using Magnetic hysteresis.
"To demagnetize small-scale objects (dimensions less than 1 m) fabricated from ferromagnetic materials, it is standard practice to expose the object to a continuous ac applied magnetic field with a steadily decaying amplitude."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_hysteresis#Magnetic_hysteresis
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/MagneticHysteresis/

That however is not very practical

If the plate is metal it is that part which has been the most magnetized and it is acting on the body of the scale.
I might suggest replacing the plate with some adhoc piece of aluminum or wood.
Or remove the metal body of the scale.

Note: its probably not as accurate anymore either.

You might check it using water. 1 milliliter of water weighs 1 gram
Or use pennies http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/MillicentOkereke.shtml

If you can't fix it at least you will know how far it is off.

Send me a note if something works.

Dave

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