Question

A man is using a machine and applying 400 N of force. If the mechanical advantage of this machine is doubled, how much force would he have to apply?

Answer 1

`200"N"`

Explanation:

Mechanical Advantage = Load/Effort

`:.MA=L/400`

You can see that if `MA` were to double then the effort would need to be reduced to `"200"N"` to double the quotient.

So you have a better machine but the payback is that you would need to move the effort twice as far due to the conservation of energy.

Pullys and gears are good examples of this.