In the Faraday balance, the magnetic field is homogeneous. The pole pieces of the magnet are shaped so that there is a region in which the product of the field strength and the field gradient in the z direction is constant; the sample to be measured is placed in this region. The force in this case is independent of the packing of the sample and depends only on the total mass of the material present. The method is sensitive and highly reproducible, and can be applied to single crystals. The force is measured as a weight change using a torsion balance.