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A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. [1] In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force. [2] Usually the term refers to the six classical simple machines that were defined by Renaissance scientists: [3] [4 ...
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft enabling a taut cable or belt passing over the wheel to move and change direction, or transfer power between itself and a shaft. A sheave or pulley wheel is a pulley using an axle supported by a frame or shell (block) to guide a cable or exert force.
Examples of rope and pulley systems illustrating mechanical advantage. Consider lifting a weight with rope and pulleys. A rope looped through a pulley attached to a fixed spot, e.g. a barn roof rafter, and attached to the weight is called a single pulley. It has a mechanical advantage (MA) = 1 (assuming frictionless bearings in the pulley ...
Machine, or Engine, in Mechanicks, is whatsoever hath Force sufficient either to raise or stop the Motion of a Body. Simple Machines are commonly reckoned to be Six in Number, viz. the Ballance, Leaver, Pulley, Wheel, Wedge, and Screw. Compound Machines, or Engines, are innumerable.
The rope is threaded through the pulleys to provide mechanical advantage that amplifies that force applied to the rope. [4] In order to determine the mechanical advantage of a block and tackle system consider the simple case of a gun tackle, which has a single mounted, or fixed, pulley and a single movable pulley.
A block and tackle [1] [2] or only tackle [3] is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift heavy loads.. The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is fixed and one moves with the load.
Vitruvius, a military engineer writing about 28 BC, defined a machine as "a combination of timber fastened together, chiefly efficacious in moving great weights".About a century later, Hero of Alexandria summarized the practice of his day by naming the "five simple machines" for "moving a given weight by a given force" as the lever, windlass, screw for power, wedge, and tackle block (pulley).
In Roman Egypt, Hero of Alexandria identified the wheel and axle as one of the simple machines used to lift weights. [12] This is thought to have been in the form of the windlass which consists of a crank or pulley connected to a cylindrical barrel that provides mechanical advantage to wind up a rope and lift a load such as a bucket from the ...