Luisa uses a nutcracker to crack walnuts. She has to squeeze the handles 12 centimeters to crack a walnut. The part of the arms holding the walnut only move 0.3 centimeters. If Luisa applies 21 Newtons of force to crack the walnut, how much force would she need without the nutcracker?(1 point)

Question

Responses

61 N
61 N

0.525 N
0.525 N

84 N
84 N

840 N

Answer 1

To find out how much force Luisa would need to apply without the nutcracker, we can use the principle of mechanical advantage.

The mechanical advantage (MA) of the nutcracker can be calculated using the distances moved by the handles and the part holding the walnut:

\[ \text{MA} = \frac{\text{Distance moved by handles}}{\text{Distance moved by walnut}} = \frac{12 \text{ cm}}{0.3 \text{ cm}} = 40 \]

This means the nutcracker provides a mechanical advantage of 40. To find the force required without the nutcracker, we can multiply the force applied with the nutcracker by the mechanical advantage:

\[ \text{Force without nutcracker} = \text{Force with nutcracker} \times \text{MA} \] \[ \text{Force without nutcracker} = 21 \text{ N} \times 40 = 840 \text{ N} \]

Therefore, the answer is 840 N.