A balanced lever has two weights on it, the first with mass 7 kg and the second with mass 29 kg. If the first weight is 3 m from the fulcrum, how far is the second weight from the fulcrum?

1 Answer
Shwetank Mauria
May 18, 2018

Second weight is 0.724m or 72.4cm from the fulcrum

Explanation:

In a balance lever, moments of the two weights are always equal and opposite (i.e, if one is clockwise other is anticlockwise) to each other. Moment is mass multiplied by its distance from fulcrum.

Here first weight is 7kg. and as ts distance from fulcrum is 3m, its moment is 3xx7=21mkg..

Let the distance of second weight from fulcrum be d m. and as its mass is 29kg. its moment is 29d

Hence 29d=21 or d=21/29=0.724 i.e. second weight is 0.724m or 72.4cm from the fulcrum

Related questions
See all questions in Simple Machines
Impact of this question
1482 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License