MYSTERY OF HANGING

WEIGHTS – MECHANICAL
ADVANTAGE OF PULLEY
- Tanvi Gandhi
 RATIONALE Pulley

As a child, I used to love recreational activities like rock and mountain climbing - an activity
which employs the concept of pulleys to evoke most of our interests.
Climbing pulleys are an advanced piece of rock climbing equipment that are typically used
for hauling gear while climbing huge walls, to prevent the leader from being pulled off the
wall when a second falls in simul-climbing, or when climbing alone and needing a self belay.
In the climbing system, the rope running over a carabiner creates a situation which acts as a
pulley.
My curiosity rose further after realising the importance of pulleys in mechanics. Hence, I
decided to conduct an experiment to analyse the behaviour of different numbers of pulleys.

I wanted to test a variable which is less commonly experimented. Commonly, people change the load attached to the
pulley to see the resulting effect, but I chose the number of pulleys as my independent variable. The aim of this
experiment is to analyse the behaviour of different number of pulleys and then answer the following research question:

“How does varying the number of pulleys used in a pulley system affect its Mechanical
Advantage when string, pulley type and number of loads on either sides are kept constant?”
 HYPOTHESIS

As the number of pulleys in a pulley system increases,

the force of weights (Effort) used decreases, increasing
it’s Mechanical Advantage (MA).

This is because the tensions in the string will be

divided, reducing the efforts by that ratio.
 CONTENT – CONCEPTUAL
UNDERSTANDING
Pulleys are an essential part of mechanics, and this is the topic
which we covered second in physics. In topic 2.2 - Forces, we E.g from TSOKOS - Ignoring friction, find the
acceleration of each mass and the tension in
learnt about object as point particles, sketching and interpreting the string.
free body diagrams and using Newton’s Laws of motion
quantitively and qualitatively. Well, the concept of pulleys require
us to apply these three topics simultaneously.
In simple terms, “a pulley is a mechanical device which contains a
wheel and rope or chain to lift heavy objects”
We have studied:
•Tension T can only be a pull and never a push.
•Weight W (m*g) is an action-at-a-distance force.
• As per Newton’s 2nd Law – F = m*a
These points are important to keep in mind for understanding the
concept of pulleys. Let’s take this example
WE WILL BE DERIVING FORMULA FOR A FIXED PULLEY AS
WE PROCEED FORWARD.
 BACKGROUND INFO
• From the earliest basic use of pulley for lifting water from wells for drinking,
people have quickly realised the potential for larger-scale uses such as in
elevators, moving heavy granite blocks, in cranes etc.
• This has really impressed me because these simple machines have evolved
immensely from a wheel and axle to compound pulleys to increase its
mechanical advantage (increasing the number of pulleys) and therefore
reducing the efforts.
• Mechanical advantage is a measure of the ratio of output force to input
force in a system, used to analyse the forces in machines like pulleys.
!"#$
𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑑𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑀. 𝐴 =
%&&"'()

• After thorough research, I got to know that

combining multiple pulleys decreases the amount of
force necessary to move an object by increasing the
amount of string (Number of strings passing
through the pulley) used to raise the object. This
further lead me to do my investigation.
THE DERIVATION OF EQUATION
Relation between Load and efforts
!"#$ 1
𝑀𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑑𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑀. 𝐴 = %&&"'() 𝑀. 𝐴 ∝ 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑀. 𝐴 ∝
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠

For 1 Pulley For 3 Pulleys

𝐸 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 = 𝑇(𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛) 𝐸 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 = 𝑇(𝑇𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛)

𝐿 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 3𝑇 Efforts reduced
𝐿 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 𝑇 NOTE : M.A is a ratio by 3 times
! $#
so has no units ∴ 𝑀. 𝐴 = = =3
! # " #
∴ 𝑀. 𝐴 = "
= #
=1
 VARIABLES
INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT
VARIABLE VARIABLE

- Number of pulleys - Mechanical Advantage (the

(manipulating or changing variable that is being measured
the number of pulleys to in this experiment and depends
investigate the mechanical on the number of pulleys as it is
advantage) manipulated)
 VARIABLES
CONTROL
VARIABLES

variable in the experiment

• Length and type (material – will affect which is held constant in
the friction) of string
order to assess the
• Number of weights on either sides
relationship between
• Pulley type (Fixed)
number of pulleys and M.A
 PROCEDURE
1. Set up the pulley system as shown in the diagram (a). (a)
2. Use as load a mass of 100g and add 6 of 20g slotted weights (b)
on the other end to find effort.
3. Calculate the load and efforts using the formulas stated
before.
4. Calculate the mechanical advantage using the formula M.A =
Load/Efforts
5. Repeat the steps 1-4 using the pulley system shown in the
diagram (b) – NOTE : You will require less efforts (20g slotted
weight) for 3 pulleys
6. Record the results in the data table and plot number of
pulleys vs M.A graph

Load - 100g Effort -2Og slotted

slotted weight weights (6)
OBSERVATION TABLE
(PROBABLE DATA)

Sr. No Number of pulleys Mechanical Advantage

1 1 1
2 3 3

1
𝑀. 𝐴 ∝ 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑀. 𝐴 ∝
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠
 PROBABLE GRAPH
Conclusion – We can infer from this graph
that as the number of pulleys (independent
variable) are increasing, the mechanical
advantage (dependent variable) is also
increasing in the same proportion
(Consequently reducing efforts by same
ratio). Therefore, Number of pulleys is
directly proportional to M.A.
 ATL SKILLS &
LEARNER PROFILES
ATL SKILLS DEVELOPED :
1. Research
2. Self Management
3. Communication

LEARNER PROFILES DEVELOPED :

1. Knowledgeable 4. Communicator
2. Thinker 5. Reflective
3. Risk-Taker