For a pulley system with 8 supporting strands, how far would you have to pull the rope to lift a 125 kg object 1.0 meters off the ground? What if the pulley system were only 80% efficient?

To find out how far you would have to pull the rope for a pulley system with 8 supporting strands, you need to consider the mechanical advantage of the system. The mechanical advantage of a pulley system is determined by the number of supporting strands.

In this case, you have 8 supporting strands, so the mechanical advantage will be 8. This means that for every meter you pull the rope, the object will be lifted by 8 meters.

So, to lift a 125 kg object 1.0 meter off the ground, you would need to pull the rope 1.0/8 = 0.125 meters.

Now, let's consider the efficiency of the pulley system. If the pulley system is only 80% efficient, it means that you would only get 80% of the work done. To calculate the efficiency, you simply multiply the mechanical advantage by the efficiency factor.

For example, in this scenario, the mechanical advantage is 8 and the efficiency is 80%. So, the effective mechanical advantage would be 8 * 0.8 = 6.4.

To find out how much distance you would need to pull the rope considering the reduced efficiency, you divide the lift height by the effective mechanical advantage:

Distance = 1.0 / 6.4 = 0.15625 meters.

Therefore, if the pulley system is only 80% efficient, you would need to pull the rope approximately 0.15625 meters to lift the 125 kg object 1.0 meter off the ground.