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My teammate is asking if we can use marbles in between the levers.

“A lever hits a marble which goes and hits a lever”

Is that ok?

Ashernoel wrote:My teammate is asking if we can use marbles in between the levers.

“A lever hits a marble which goes and hits a lever”

Is that ok?

I would figure so, the levers are the ones transferring the energy.

Hey guys.
I was wondering, for the lever system, do our levers need to travel a certain direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) to count as their class of levers? Or is it just the direction of the effort and load? For example, If I wanted to mount a second class lever in such a way where the effort forced down the long end and not up, would that be acceptable?

Ash123 wrote:Hey guys.
I was wondering, for the lever system, do our levers need to travel a certain direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) to count as their class of levers? Or is it just the direction of the effort and load? For example, If I wanted to mount a second class lever in such a way where the effort forced down the long end and not up, would that be acceptable?

As long as the levers are acting in the way specified by their class, with the effort and load moving in the same directions as shown, it should be fine, at least in my experience. At my first invitational, our levers only moved a few centimeters each and they were legal. Maybe you could provide a diagram of your proposed lever?

What are people's feelings on a lever that has the effort and load at the same point on the lever? I don't think this classifies as a lever but the discussion came up

ScottMaurer19 wrote:What are people's feelings on a lever that has the effort and load at the same point on the lever? I don't think this classifies as a lever but the discussion came up

I don’t think that would count. A second class lever requires the load to be in between the effort and fulcrum, while a third class lever requires the effort to be in between the fulcrum and load.

Ash123 wrote:

ScottMaurer19 wrote:What are people's feelings on a lever that has the effort and load at the same point on the lever? I don't think this classifies as a lever but the discussion came up

I don’t think that would count. A second class lever requires the load to be in between the effort and fulcrum, while a third class lever requires the effort to be in between the fulcrum and load.

I concur. It will have no mechanical advantage whatsoever so if it even counts as a class of lever it won't satisfy the need to use mechanical advantage.

davecutting wrote:

Ash123 wrote:

ScottMaurer19 wrote:What are people's feelings on a lever that has the effort and load at the same point on the lever? I don't think this classifies as a lever but the discussion came up

I don’t think that would count. A second class lever requires the load to be in between the effort and fulcrum, while a third class lever requires the effort to be in between the fulcrum and load.

I concur. It will have no mechanical advantage whatsoever so if it even counts as a class of lever it won't satisfy the need to use mechanical
advantage.

That’s actually something that confuses me about the rules- how do you know of the lever has some mechanical advantage? And do all of the mechanical advantages have to be the same?

Ash123 wrote:

davecutting wrote:

Ash123 wrote:
I don’t think that would count. A second class lever requires the load to be in between the effort and fulcrum, while a third class lever requires the effort to be in between the fulcrum and load.

I concur. It will have no mechanical advantage whatsoever so if it even counts as a class of lever it won't satisfy the need to use mechanical
advantage.

That’s actually something that confuses me about the rules- how do you know of the lever has some mechanical advantage? And do all of the mechanical advantages have to be the same?

If the load and the effort are not in the same position, you will have mechanical advantage. That is, a mechanical advantage other than one.

davecutting wrote:

Ash123 wrote:

davecutting wrote:
I concur. It will have no mechanical advantage whatsoever so if it even counts as a class of lever it won't satisfy the need to use mechanical
advantage.

That’s actually something that confuses me about the rules- how do you know of the lever has some mechanical advantage? And do all of the mechanical advantages have to be the same?

If the load and the effort are not in the same position, you will have mechanical advantage. That is, a mechanical advantage other than one.

That was the opinion of the ES at Westlake and I agree.