Archimedes is reputed to have said that given a lever large enough and a place to stand, he could move the earth. Earth weighs 5.87 · 1025 N. If you assume that Archimedes could exert a force of 150 N, his hypothetical lever would have had a mechanical advantage of 3.91 · 1023. If the fulcrum of this lever was placed 1.0 m from Earth, how far away from the fulcrum would Archimedes have had to stand to obtain this mechanical advantage?

Question

jfraser · Answer

use the work-energy theorem. levers act to lessen the force required to move an object, but at the expense of an increased distance

anonymous · Answer

Thanks :)