Question

The input force of a pulley system must move 8.0 m to lift a 3000-N engine a distance of 2.0 m. What is the IMA of the system?

Answer 1

To overcome a friction, certain amount of input force is needed, and actual mechanical advantage is difficult to be calculated thus, ideal mechanical advantage or IMA is calculated by taking ratio of input distance and output distance. It is mathematically represented as:

$IMA=\frac{d_{i}}{d_{o}}$

Here,  $d_{i}$  is input distance and  $d_{o}$ is output distance.

In the problem, input distance is 8 m and output distance is 2 m thus,

$IMA=\frac{d_{i}}{d_{o}}=\frac{8 m}{2 m}=4$

Therefore, ideal mechanical advantage or IMA is 4.