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.
61 N
64 N
.525 N
840 N
To calculate the force Alicia would need without the nutcracker, we can first calculate the distance the force is being applied through the nutcracker. This distance is the total distance the handles are being squeezed, which is 12 cm.
Next, we need to determine the distance over which the force is being applied without the nutcracker. Since only 0.3 cm of the nutcracker arms is actually squeezing the nut, the force is being applied over a much shorter distance.
Using the principle of mechanical advantage:
Force with nutcracker / Force without nutcracker = Distance without nutcracker / Distance with nutcracker
Plugging in the values:
21 N / Force without nutcracker = 0.3 cm / 12 cm
Force without nutcracker = 21 N * (12 cm / 0.3 cm)
Force without nutcracker = 21 N * 40
Force without nutcracker = 840 N
Therefore, Alicia would need 840 Newtons of force to crack the pecan without the nutcracker. The correct answer is 840 N.