Understanding Mechanical Advantage of a Stationary Single Pulley

Mechanical Advantage of a Stationary Single Pulley

Final Answer: A stationary single pulley not including friction provides a mechanical advantage of 1.

Explanation

The mechanical advantage of a pulley system corresponds to the number of ropes supporting the load. For a system lifting a 200N load with an effort force of 52N, the mechanical advantage is about 3.85, suggesting that one rope is required.

The mechanical advantage (MA) of a stationary single pulley system not including friction. An ordinary single pulley changes the direction of the force but does not change its magnitude, providing a mechanical advantage of 1. When friction is ignored, a pulley system's mechanical advantage is approximately equal to the number of ropes that support the load.

The mechanical advantage can be calculated simply by counting the number of ropes supporting the load which, in a frictionless scenario, equals the ideal mechanical advantage (IMA). For instance, a pulley system with two ropes attached to the load would have an MA of about 2, and one with four ropes would have an MA of about 4.

Specifically, if a pulley system can lift a 200N load with an effort force of 52N and is nearly 100 percent efficient, the mechanical advantage can be found by dividing the load by the effort (200N/52N), which gives a mechanical advantage of approximately 3.85. The closest answer to this mechanical advantage would be option b. 1 rope is required because the actual mechanical advantage is 3.80.