Question

How do pulleys work to provide a mechanical advantage?

Answer 1

Hint: We should be able to explain the working of the pulleys in a mechanical system in order to understand the relevance and the advantage of these pulley systems in various operating mechanical parts and even in the wells in our homes.

Complete answer:
The pulleys are disc-like structures which allow a rope to hang across their outer surface without slipping off the surface which is usually attached to a fixed point. This mechanical arrangement is widely used in many practical cases for the ease of working.
A single pulley system as the one which we use in our households to draw water from wells provides the advantage over pulling the weight from the bottom against pulling the rope to the bottom. The work done by the person is in the opposite direction which is far easier and good for health even though the magnitude of the work done remains the same.

The actual advantage of using pulley systems is when the two or more pulleys are connected by different ropes. The work done in the system will be multiplied by the number of ropes attached in the system or the number of pulleys in the system. This advantage is employed widely in mechanical aspects which helps the working system to be providing lesser energy than when the system is working directly.
This is the required solution.

Note:
The pulley systems are among the oldest innovative ideas that revolutionised the mechanical systems. The use of the pulley systems dated back to the Newton’s era or even before when the mathematics of these systems were not fully explained.