Lever Problem 2 Solution

In lever problems you are trying to get the weight * the distance of one side to equal the weight times the distance of the other. The fulcrum would be considered the balance point, and since a weight of 100 lbs is on that side we can see that the weight of 100 * 2 = 200 has to equal the distance of 8 (10 - 2) times a certain amount of weight which were trying to figure out for the other side. So algebraically we have:

100 * 2 = 8 * x

200 = 8x

x = 200/8

x = 25

This means that a weight of 25 lbs would have to be applied to one side of the lever to lift the 100 lbs. As far as levers are concerned this makes sense. You definitely want to exert less force on one end that the weight of object your trying to move!