Simple Machines and Mechanical Advantage Research Paper

Simple machines are used to let people do certain tasks without using a lot of force. They increase the effect of a certain input distance, speed, or force. They also are able to help change direction. Simple machines consist of levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges, screws, wheel and axles, and gears. 1Some of these simple machines combined create compound machines. Some examples of compound machines are a wheel barrow that consists of a wheel and axle and a lever, and a cork screw which has two levers and a screw. 1There is a tendency for compound machines to have a lower efficiencies than simple machines. 1Compound machines however, have greater mechanical advantages than simple machines.

There a two types of mechanical advantage. They are ideal mechanical advantage (IMA) and actual mechanical advantage (AMA). IMA is the input distance divided by the output distance. For inclined planes it is the length of the inclined plane divided by the height of it. AMA is the output force divided by the input force. If the mechanical advantage is greater than 1, they are force multipliers and displacement or speed dividers. If the mechanical advantage is less than 1, the machines are displacement or speed multipliers and force dividers. However, if the mechanical advantage is equal to 1 it is neither a force nor displacement or speed multiplier. When the mechanical advantage is equal to one it is a direction changer.

Efficiency is calculated by dividing the actual mechanical advantage by the ideal mechanical advantage. This will give you a decimal. To get a percent efficiency the decimal must be multiplies by 100. The ideal percentage of efficiency would be 100%. This nevertheless, does not usually happen due to friction in the sy...

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...rings moving along the wheels for either wheel and axles or pulleys, and also the friction from the friction block on the inclined plane. These frictions would obviously lower the efficiencies of the simple machines.

This lab has changed the way I view how college will be like. Most likely I will have to write big papers like this one and will have the same or even less amount of time. It also has shown me that if I force myself to do something in little chunks, I can get it accomplished with less stress than I would if I had done it all in the span of one or two nights. I also have concluded that I should work on my time management and setting different priorities. This lab has hopefully triggered something in my mind that will help with my future projects and papers in which I will space out time and be able to make better decision during the projects.