Let's make a DIY pulley! Even though pulleys look simple, they are actually powerful machines that are the foundation of many more complex...

Refreshed with an understanding of the six simple machines; screw, wedge, pully, incline plane, wheel and axle, and lever, student groups receive materials and an allotted amount of time to act as mechanical engineers to design and create machines that can complete specified tasks. For the competition, they choose from pre-determined goal options such as: 1) dumping goldfish into a bowl, 2) popping a balloon, or 3) dropping mint candies into soda pop (creating a fizzy reaction). Students…

“A movable pulley is one whos block is movable. One end of the cord is fastened to the beam, and the weight is sspended from the pulley, the other end of the cord being drawn by the application of a force P. A little consideration will show that if P moves through a certain distance, say 1 foot, W will move through half that distance, or 6 inches; hence, a pull of 1 pound at P will life 2 pounds at W.” — Hallock, 1905

A man using a pulley to lift a heavy barrel.

There are several different types of pulleys, the original purpose of which was to make lifting large objects more straightforward. A pulley is a simple gadget that moves something using a wheel, rope, cord, or chain. Pulleys can be found almost anywhere to aid in the completion of activities. Pulleys can be used to carry persons or items and lift things. They can be used alone or in groups of several pulleys. They can also transfer electricity from one shaft to the next. Furthermore, A…

Download this stock vector: A movable pulley is a pulley that is free to move up and down, and is attached to a ceiling or other object by two lengths of the same rope, vintage l - 2BTGEE5 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.

This document shows you how to make an effective and useful pulley system. If you study the pictures, you will be able to understand how the ratio of a pulley system is calculated. Understand that the maximum load to the break in a pulley system should not be underestimated. And last but not least I visualized you some systems with different ratios. This is for example useful if you plan to setup longer slacklines.

Here we have a 3:1 mechanical advantage. First one end of the rope is attached directly to the load, this is then passed around an…

A block and tackle system can be rigged to advantage or rigged to disadvantage, depending on the needs of the people arranging the set-up. Friction on the pulleys ultimately limits the work that can be done by block and tackle pulley systems in practice, though they are still common.