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Wolfowitz
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Homework Statement
If a lever has a mechanical advantage of 0.5 - does this mean the input force is not amplified but halved?
wolfowitz said:Homework Statement
if a lever has a mechanical advantage of 0.5 - does this mean the input force is not amplified but halved?
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
So you might wonder, "What's the advantage then, when I have to exert double the force?" Well, as is the way with simple levers, if one thing halves, something else will double. Can you figure out how we benefit here, with this type of lever?If a lever has a mechanical advantage of 0.5 - does this mean the input force is not amplified but halved?
Wolfowitz said:Work input = Work output
(Force * distance) input = (Force * distance) output
(Force * distance) input = (force/2 * distance2) output
Distance is doubled, right?
But what, exactly, is "distance" in terms of a lever?
Mechanical advantage is the ratio of the output force produced by a machine to the input force applied to it. It measures the effectiveness of a machine in amplifying or multiplying the input force.
The mechanical advantage of a lever is calculated by dividing the distance from the fulcrum to the point of input force (effort distance) by the distance from the fulcrum to the point of output force (load distance). This is also known as the lever arm ratio.
The ideal mechanical advantage of a lever is the ratio of the load distance to the effort distance. This means that the lever can theoretically multiply the input force by the same factor as the ratio between the distances.
In a first class lever, the fulcrum is located between the input force and the output force. In a second class lever, the output force is located between the fulcrum and the input force. In a third class lever, the input force is located between the fulcrum and the output force.
A seesaw is an example of a first class lever with an ideal mechanical advantage of 1. A wheelbarrow is an example of a second class lever with an ideal mechanical advantage of 2. A pair of tweezers is an example of a third class lever with an ideal mechanical advantage of less than 1.