[Illustration: FIG. 96.--A single movable pulley.]
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--Block and tackle.]
[Illustration: FIG. 98.--The fixed pulley considered as a lever.]
[Illustration: FIG. 99.--The movable pulley considered as a lever.]
=125. The Pulley.=--The _pulley_ consists of a wheel turning on an axis
in a frame. The wheel is called a sheave and the frame a block. The rim
may be smooth or grooved. The grooved rim is used to hold a cord or
rope. One use of the pulley is to change the _direction_ of the acting
force as in Fig. 84, where pulley _B_ changes a horizontal pull at _H_
to a downward force and pulley _A_ changes this into an upward force
lifting the weight _W_. These pulleys are fixed and simply change the
direction. Without considering the loss by friction, the pull at _W_
will equal that at _F_. Sometimes, a pulley is attached to the weight
and is lifted with it. It is then called a _movable pulley_. In Fig. 96
the _movable pulley_ is at _P_, a fixed pulley is at _F_. When _fixed
pulleys_ are used, a single cord runs through from the weight to the
effort, so that if a force of 100 lbs. is applied by the effort the same
force is received at the weight. But with movable pulleys several
sections of cord may extend upward from the weight each with the force
of the effort upon it. By this arrangement, a weight several times
larger than the effort can be lifted. Fig. 97 represents what is called
a _block and tackle_. If a force of 50 lbs. is exerted at _F_, each
section of the rope will have the same tension and hence the six
sections of the rope will support 300 lbs. weight. The _mechanical
advantage of the pulley_ or the _ratio of the weight_ to the effort,
therefore, _equals the number of sections of cord supporting the
weight_. The fixed pulley represents a lever, see Fig. 98, where the
effort and weight are equal. In the movable pulley, the fulcrum (see
Fig. 99) is at _D_; the weight, _W_, is applied at the center of the
pulley and the effort at _F_. The weight distance, _D_{w}_, is the
radius, and the effort distance, _D_{f}_, is the diameter of the
pulley. Since _W/F = D_{f} / D_{w} = 2_ in a movable pulley, the weight
is twice the effort, or its mechanical advantage is 2.
Important Topics
1. Wheel and Axle, Law of Wheel and Axle.
2. Pulley, Fixed and Movable, Block and Tackle, Law of Pulley.
Exercises
1. Why do door knobs make it easier to unlatch doors? What simple
machine do they represent? Explain.
2. What combination of pulleys will enable a 160-lb. man to raise a
900-lb. piano?
3. When you pull a nail with an ordinary claw hammer, what is the effort
arm? the resistance arm?
4. How much work is done by the machine in problem 2 in lifting the
piano 20 ft.? How much work must be done upon the machine to do this
work?
5. The pilot wheel of a boat has a diameter of 60 in.; the diameter of
the axle is 6 in. If the resistance is 175 lbs., what force must be
applied to the wheel?
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