Samantha builds a lever to lift objects in a science experiment. The load arm is 0.4 meters. If she wants the lever to have a mechanical advantage of 8, how long should the effort arm be?(1 point)

Question

Responses

3.2 m
3.2 m

7.6 m
7.6 m

8.4 m
8.4 m

0.05 m

Answer 1

To determine the length of the effort arm needed to achieve a mechanical advantage (MA) of 8, we can use the formula for mechanical advantage in a lever:

\[ \text{MA} = \frac{\text{Length of effort arm}}{\text{Length of load arm}} \]

Given that the load arm is 0.4 meters and we want the mechanical advantage to be 8, we can rearrange the formula to solve for the length of the effort arm (EA):

\[ \text{Length of effort arm} = \text{MA} \times \text{Length of load arm} \]

Substituting the values we have:

\[ \text{Length of effort arm} = 8 \times 0.4 , \text{m} = 3.2 , \text{m} \]

Therefore, the effort arm should be 3.2 m.