Calculating Mechanical Advantage of a Screw-Type Car Jack

How can we calculate the mechanical advantage of a screw-type car jack?

What is the mechanical advantage (M.A.) of a screw-type car jack when the crank handle travels 72 cm in one revolution and each revolution raises the car by 1.2 cm?

Calculation of Mechanical Advantage

The mechanical advantage (M.A.) of the car jack in this scenario is approximately 0.0167. This means that for every 1 cm the crank handle travels, the car is raised by approximately 0.0167 cm.

The mechanical advantage (M.A.) of the car jack can be calculated by dividing the distance the load is raised (in this case, the car) by the distance the effort is applied (in this case, the crank handle travel). In this scenario, you utilized a screw-type car jack to raise your car 20 cm, and the crank handle of the jack travels 72 cm in one revolution. Additionally, each revolution of the crank handle raises the car by 1.2 cm. To find the M.A., we can use the formula:

M.A. = distance raised / distance traveled by the crank handle

Let's calculate it step by step:

1. Calculate the number of crank handle revolutions needed to raise the car by 20 cm:
• Number of revolutions = distance raised / distance raised per revolution
• Number of revolutions = 20 cm / 1.2 cm/revolution
• Number of revolutions ≈ 16.67 revolutions
2. Calculate the distance traveled by the crank handle in 16.67 revolutions:
• Distance traveled by the crank handle = number of revolutions * distance traveled per revolution
• Distance traveled by the crank handle = 16.67 revolutions * 72 cm/revolution
• Distance traveled by the crank handle ≈ 1200.24 cm
3. Calculate the M.A.:
• M.A. = distance raised / distance traveled by the crank handle
• M.A. = 20 cm / 1200.24 cm
• M.A. ≈ 0.0167

By following these calculations, we determined that the mechanical advantage of the screw-type car jack in this scenario is approximately 0.0167.