Name__________________________________________

Simple Machines Lab 1: Inclined Plane

Materials: Board, 5-6 books, three different kinds of shoes, 1 kg mass,
spring scale

Directions:
1. Create a stack of books and make a ramp by leaning one end of the board against the
top of the stack.
2. Put the mass in one of the shoes.
3. Attach the spring scale to the shoe.
4. Place the shoe at the bottom of the ramp and use the spring scale to pull the shoe up the
ramp at a slow constant speed.
5. Record the reading on the spring scale as you pull the shoe up the ramp as the “input
force.”
6. Next, hang the shoe (with the mass in it) from the spring scale and record the reading
as the “output force.”
7. Measure and record the length of the ramp as the “input distance.”
8. Measure and record the height of the ramp as the “output distance.”
9. Use your measurements to calculate the actual and ideal mechanical advantage.
10. Calculate the efficiency of this simple machine.

Input distance:_________________

Output distance:_________________

Input force: ____________________

Output force: ____________________

Calculate ideal mechanical advantage of ramp:

Calculate actual mechanical advantage of ramp:

Calculate efficiency of machine:

This material was developed through the Cornell Science Inquiry Partnership program (http://csip.cornell.edu), with
support from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program (DGE
# 0231913 and # 9979516) and Cornell University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.