Mechanical Advantages Vocabulary Study Guide

The number of times a machine increases an input force.

• mechanical advantage

• efficiency

• lever

• fulcrum

the ratio of the output force to the input force in a machine

• ideal mechanical advantage

• input arm

• output arm

• actual mechanical advantage

the mechanical advantage of a machine in the absence of friction

• inclined plane

• wheel and axle

• ideal mechanical advantage

• wedge

the percentage of the work input that becomes work output in a machine

• wedge

• fulcrum

• lever

• efficiency

a rigid bar that is free to move around a fixed point

• lever

• fulcrum

• wheel

• axle

Define: fulcrum

• the fixed point of a lever rotates around

• the distance between the fulcrum in a lever and the input force

• the number of times a machine increases an input force

• the distance between the fulcrum in a lever and the output force

Define: input and output arm

• the distance between the fulcrum in a lever and the input force

• fulcrum

• the distance between the fulcrum in a lever and the output force

• the distance through which the input force acts in a machine

Define: wheel and axle

• compound machine

• mechanical advantage

• a simple machine that consists of two rigidly attached disks or cylinders, each on with a different radius

• a slanted surface along which a force moves an object to a different elevation

a slanted surface along which a force moves an object to a different elevation

• Inclined plane

• wheel and axle

• lever

• joule

Define: Wedge

• a device that changes a force

• a V-shaped object whose sides are two inclined planes sloped toward each other

• the rate of doing work

• the product of distance and the force in the direction an object moves