A balanced lever has two weights on it, one with mass 4 kg and one with mass 2 kg. If the first weight is 9 m from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?

1 Answer
Apr 1, 2016

18 "m"

Explanation:

To balance the lever, the torque about the fulcrum must be zero.

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In this question, we have

  • M_1 = 4 "kg"
  • a = 9 "m"
  • M_2 = 2 "kg"

We want to find b.

Therefore,

(4 "kg") * (9 "m") = (2 "kg") * b

b = frac{(4 "kg") * (9 "m")}{2 "kg"}

= 18 "m"