Gatortrapper Posted August 10, 2009 Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 I'm working on a project creating "mobiles" or hanging art. I cannot find any resources that explain how to calculate the length of the lever arm or the distance from the moment (I think that is what the point where the leverarm is hinged or attached but I only got a BA and not a BS so my hard science background is not quite as good as it might be) for differing weight loads. Nor can I find any resources that speak the construction of mobiles as an form of art but addressing the physics or mathematical factors. Anyone with an idea or two? Thanks Gatortrapper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted August 10, 2009 Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 The principle of leverage can be derived using Newton's laws of motion, and modern statics. It is important to note that the amount of work done is given by force times distance. To use a lever to lift a certain unit of weight with a force of half a unit, the distance from the fulcrum to the spot where force is applied must be exactly twice that of the distance between the weight and the fulcrum....Load arm X load force = effort arm X effort force. If, for example, a 1 gram feather were balanced by a one kilogram rock, the feather would be 1000 times further from the fulcrum than the rock; if a 1 kilogram rock were balanced by another 1 kilogram rock, the fulcrum would be in the middle. Lever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia as for mobiles, i have found trial-&-error practical. :smilingsun: you might check out pendulums for some equations/ideas/concepts you can use. :smilingsun: >> Pendulum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modest Posted August 10, 2009 Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 It can be expressed mathematically like so:[math]F_e=F_1\left(\frac{d_1}{d_e}\right)[/math]where [math]F_e[/math] is the smaller of the two forces (or weights), [math]F_1[/math] is the larger weight, [math]d_1[/math] is the smaller distance, and [math]d_e[/math] is the larger distance. Wonderfully depicted here:-source~modest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortrapper Posted August 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2009 Excellent tools! Great help. Thanks. I had rooted around trying to find something and I knew it was there but like a misspelled word in the dictionary, they can be difficult to find. Gatortrapper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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