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  • Mechanical Advantage is the amount of force which a Machine can multiply to an input force. Mechanical Advantage is used to make work easier for us by using a machine to do the work.

  • Mechanical Advantage is the ratio of two forces ( the input forces and the Output forces )

  • For the calculation of Mechanical Advantage click here

  • For videos of Mechanicla Advantage Click here



external image lever4.gif the Effort will be the input forces and the Load will be the Output forces.



there are some machine that has a Mechanical Advantage that is >1. is there will be less force applied to the input forces For example:

external image ramps_out_side.jpg The forces that a box needed to be pushed up the ramp is less that just lift the box straight up. but it will take longer since the distance from the furniture is far away from the top of the ramp. This will make your work easier!


There is also Mechanical Advantage <1 because it will need more force applied to the machine than the output forces of the machine. So why do you need it then? For example:


external image tweezer_b.jpg a tweezer will be a good example. you want to apply as little force as possible in order to no hurt your self if you were removing a splinter. but you cannot control youself if you just use a hand. so A tweezer will help you to decrease the amount of force you apply.


There are also machine that has a Mechanical Advantage about or = to 1. because these machine only changed the direction of the input and output to make it the opposite. An good example will be a pulley.


external image Pulley_(PSF).png this will make it seem easier. so when the input forces in pulled down the output forces's load will be lifted up.