Final answer:
Nails are generally easier to drive into wood than screws due to their smoother surface. A carpenter's trick to prevent bending nails is to grip them with pliers while hammering.
Step-by-step explanation:
Generally, nails are easier to drive into wood compared to screws because nails have a smoother surface and require less force to penetrate the wood. Screws, on the other hand, have threads that provide more resistance when being driven. However, this extra resistance also means screws tend to hold more securely once installed.
An old carpenter's trick to prevent nails from bending is to grip the nail firmly with pliers. This provides extra support and reduces the likelihood of the nail bending under the hammer's force. The increased grip provides stability and allows the nail to absorb the impact more efficiently, which is particularly useful when working with hard materials.
When measuring the usage of nails from a large box, if the spring stretches 50 cm in the beginning and 30 cm at the end of the day, we can calculate consumption. The difference in stretch (20 cm) represents the used portion of nails. Therefore, the fraction of nails used is 20/50, which simplifies to 2/5, or 40%.