LYCOS RETRIEVER
Inclined Plane: Ramp
built 263 days ago
The MA of an inclined plane without any friction is equal to the length of the plane divided by the height of the plane. A ramp that is twice as long as it is high has a mechanical advantage of 2. This means that the ramp doubles the effort applied by the user, or that the user needs to apply only half as much effort to lift an object to a desired height as he or she would without the ramp. Increasing the ratio of the length of the ramp to the height of the ramp decreases the effort needed to lift an object. This idea explains why climbing up a steep hill takes more effort (and seems more difficult) than walking up a longer, more gradual path to the same height as that of the steep hill. The longer the inclined plane, the larger the MA will be.
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The inclined plane is the simplest of simple machines because to make it work, nothing moves. You move! Another name for an inclined plane is a ramp. It can be as simple as the driveway leading to your school or as sophisticated as the staircase in the Empire State Building. A ramp works by helping you lift things more easily up to a higher level. It can be really difficult to carry a box of stuff up a ladder.
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Water being raised from a well by means of bullocks pulling at the rope down an inclined plane, a closer view of the previous. The pair of bullocks, steered down the ramp by a sam sitting in a sligh slung between them, is used to haul up a large bullock's hide full of water, which another man then tips into a channel running to a nearby tank. A bishti is filling with the water his own skins across another bullock. Beyond is a range of hills. Inscribed below: 'Water wheel upon the principal of the inclined plane and the water raised in Bullock's hide in front.'
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