Question

Evan is trying to lift a box of books from the ground to the table with a force of 100 N. He finds this task difficult, so instead, he builds an inclined plane out of a piece of wood and pushes the box up the ramp with a force of 50 N. What is the Mechanical Advantage of the ramp? (Mechanical Advantage = Resistive Force/Effort Force)

a) 0.5
b) 1
c) 2
d) 4

Answer 1

The mechanical advantage of the inclined plane Evan uses to lift the box of books is 2.

Step-by-step explanation:

The mechanical advantage (MA) of a simple machine such as an inclined plane indicates how much the machine multiplies the effort force applied to it. To calculate the MA, you divide the resistive force by the effort force. In Evan's case, the resistive force of the box of books is 100 N, which he originally lifts straight up with the same amount of force. When Evan uses an inclined plane, he applies an effort force of 50 N to accomplish the same task. This means the mechanical advantage of the plane is MA = Resistive Force / Effort Force = 100 N / 50 N = 2.