Wats the hidden shortcut to figure the mechanical advantage for a pulley system by not doing calculations?
Is that using many pulleys at once? I really don't know. Just guessing.
The mechanical advantage of a pulley system can be determined without using calculations by understanding the basic principles of pulleys and their configurations. One common shortcut to figure out the mechanical advantage of a pulley system is to count the number of rope segments that support the load.
In a simple pulley system where the rope is attached to a fixed point on one end and the load on the other, the mechanical advantage is equal to the number of rope segments supporting the load. For example, if there are two rope segments supporting the load, the mechanical advantage would be 2.
Using multiple pulleys in various configurations can further increase the mechanical advantage. By looping the rope through multiple pulleys, known as a compound pulley system, you can multiply the mechanical advantages of each individual pulley to get a larger overall mechanical advantage. For example, if you have a compound pulley system with three pulleys, each with a mechanical advantage of 2, the overall mechanical advantage would be 2 * 2 * 2 = 8.
So, to summarize, the shortcut to determine the mechanical advantage of a pulley system without calculations is to count the number of rope segments supporting the load and consider the configuration of multiple pulleys, if applicable.