First, a force is applied to the mechanical system, which transfers the force to the strain gauge, which is basically an elastic foil connected to a wheatstone bridge configuration. This wheatstone bridge configuration is the electronic device that the strain gauge uses to convert a certain amount of strain into electrical output. Essentially, the mechanical system and strain gauge are used to convert a force into an electrical output.
This electrical output is generally very small, so it is amplified using a form of electric amplification, for which an integrated circuit or transistor may possibly be used. The electrical output is measured and the plugged into a computer algorithm. The algorithm uses the amount of electricity to tell a user how much force was applied to the load .