A balanced lever has two weights on it, the first with mass #15 kg # and the second with mass #18 kg#. If the first weight is # 9 m# from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?

1 Answer
Apr 3, 2018

#7.5# meters

Explanation:

For a balanced lever, we have:

#m_1d_1=m_2d_2#

  • #m_1,m_2# are the masses of the two objects

  • #d_1,d_2# are the distances of the two objects from the fulcrum

And so, we got:

#15 \ "kg"*9 \ "m"=18 \ "kg"*d_2#

#d_2=(135color(red)cancelcolor(black)"kg""m")/(18color(red)cancelcolor(black)"kg")#

#=7.5 \ "m"#