The More Pulleys, The More Pull

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project was to find out if there were any disadvantages to using pulleys to lift weight. I think when you use more pulleys it gets easier to lift a certain amount of weight, but you pull more string to lift it. Methods/Materials Three pulley setups with identical weights but different number of pulleys were constructed. Setup 1 has only one pulley; Setup 2 has two pulleys, and Setup 3 has four pulleys. When the weights were lifted to the exact height, the string pulled on each setup were measured and the each distance were color marked on each setup's string. Results The amount of string pulled increased as the number of pulleys in each setup increased. On Setup 1 (one pulley), the distance pulled was the same as the lift height. On Setup 2 (two pulleys), the distance pulled was twice the lift height. On Setup 3 (four pulleys), the distance pulled was four times the lift height. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that number of pulleys determine the number of string segments going around them. The number of string segments determine how long the string will be pulled to lift the weight to a certain height.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Applied Mechanics/ Structures & Mechanisms/ Manufacturing · Entry J0214

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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