Alicia collected pecans from a tree outside. She is using a nutcracker to crack them open. She has to squeeze the handles 12
centimeters to crack a pecan. The part of the arms holding the nut only moves 0.3 centimeters. If Alice applies 21 Newtons of force to
crack the pecan, how much force would she need WITHOUT the nutcracker.(1 point)
61 N
64 N
.525 N
840 N
To calculate the force Alicia would need without the nutcracker, we can use the concept of a lever. The effort arm is the part of the lever that Alicia squeezes (12 cm) and the resistance arm is the part of the lever that pushes on the nut (0.3 cm). The force applied by Alicia is 21 N.
Using the formula for a lever:
Force x Effort Arm = Load x Resistance Arm
21 N x 12 cm = Load x 0.3 cm
Load = (21 N x 12 cm) / 0.3 cm
Load = 840 N
Therefore, Alicia would need a force of 840 N without the nutcracker to crack the pecan. So the correct answer is:
840 N