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Turning Effects of Forces: When You Bend Your Arm, The Arm Acts As A Lever. Your Elbow Is The Pivot
Turning Effects of Forces: When You Bend Your Arm, The Arm Acts As A Lever. Your Elbow Is The Pivot
When you push down on a door handle, the handle turns. When you push down on the pedal of a bicycle, the pedal
turns. When you pull on a door, the door turns toward you. These are all examples of forces that cause an object to turn.
The fixed point around which the lever turns is called the pivot. Pivot is represented by a small triangle “ ”
When you bend your arm, the arm acts as a lever. Your elbow is the pivot.
The lever and pivot are shown in the picture of the bicycle pedals in Figure 3.4.1.
Calculating moments
• the size of the applied force (the bigger the force, the bigger the moment)
• the perpendicular distance between the applied force acts and the pivot. (the greater the distance, the greater the
moment).
Formula :
S.I Unit: Nm
Remember to use an upper case N and a lower case m when writing Nm.
Question
A pulling force of 35 N is needed to open a door. The distance from the door handle to the door hinges (the pivot) is
0.8m. What is the moment caused by the pull on the door?
moment = 28 N m
Balancing
A seesaw is a type of lever. People sit on either side of the pivot of a seesaw and make the lever turn one way and then
the other. The result is that each person moves up and down.
A seesaw will be balanced when the moments on both sides of the pivot are equal and opposite.
Question
Marcus, with a weight of  sits at a distance of  from the pivot of a seesaw. Arun, has a weight of 800 N. Where
should Arun sit to make sure the seesaw is balanced?
For the seesaw to be balanced, the moment on the other side must also be 1200 Nm.
distance = = 1.5 m