A balanced lever has two weights on it, the first with mass $16 k g$ $16 kg$ and the second with mass $3 k g$ $3 kg$ . If the first weight is $7 m$ $7 m$ from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?

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Answer 1 · 2016-04-28T13:31:14

$\frac{112}{3} m$ $112/3m$

Well, if the lever is balanced, the torque (or, the moment of force) has to be the same. Hence,

$16 \cdot 7 m = 3 \cdot x$ $16*7m = 3*x$

$\Rightarrow x = \frac{112}{3} m$ $=> x = 112/3m$

why can't I have some nice numbers, in the problem so that, at least the results look nice ??

A balanced lever has two weights on it, the first with mass 16kg16 kg and the second with mass 3kg3 kg. If the first weight is 7m 7 m from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?