Calculate Law of the Lever

Calculating the force or lever arm and load or lift arm as well as the forces in a lever. A lever is an instrument for converting force. Since work is force times distance, the distance can be extended to reduce the amount of force required, or vice versa. This is what a lever does. The load arm carries the load, and force is exerted on the force arm. A longer force arm is usually an advantage because you want to save force. Force times length equals work.

The formula for the calculation is:power * lever arm = load * lift arm ( = work )
F _P * l _P = F _L * l _L

Example: A two-meter-long force arm, which is loaded with five Newtons, acts on a load arm with a length of half a meter, i.e. 0.5 meters with a force of 20 Newtons.

The leverage effect is calculated using the inverse rule of three. If one of the two values ​​of force and distance increases for one lever, then one of the two values ​​for the other lever also increases in the same ratio. Double the force for one lever can therefore correspond to double the distance for the other lever. The distance is usually referred to as the length of the corresponding lever arm, from the pivot point to the point where the force is applied. However, you can just as easily calculate using the lengths of the two circular arcs. Of course, in reality the force is not applied at exactly one point; here the calculation is based on the center of gravity.

This calculator for the leverage effect is designed to be simple. A more comprehensive calculator with more setting options is the lever calculator.

A long distance is often easier to achieve than a large force, which is why levers have long been used for technical and mechanical purposes. An everyday example of a lever is the bottle opener, where a handle about 10 centimeters long, the force arm, moves the much shorter load arm with relatively little force, which then lifts the crown cap with greater force and opens the bottle.