Question

A balanced lever has two weights on it, one with mass `2 kg` and one with mass `16 kg`. If the first weight is `8 m` from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?

Answer 1

`1"m"`

Explanation:

You can use the principle of moments. The moment of a force is the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance of the force from the fulcrum.

For the lever to be balanced the anti - clockwise moments must balance the clockwise moments.

So from the diagram we can write:

`2gxx8=16gxxd`

`:.d=(16g)/(16g)=1"m"`