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© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
On this balance is a weight of 100 on one side, and an unknown weight on the other side (a distance of 27 units from the fulcrum). Move the 100 weight by moving the red dot below it, and try to guess the other weight. The answer is below.
Answer: Letting our unknown weight be x, and the distance our 100 weight is from the fulcrum be d, we have the lever formula (x)(27) = 100d. You should see that d is about 18, hard to tell exactly. So x = 66.67. If you got anywhere from 66.30 to 68.15, then give yourself an A.
The above Java interactive demonstration was created with Cinderella (a geometry program).
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