Levers are simple machines used in a variety of situations.

They are made of a rigid bar,

which can oscillate around a fixed piece, the fulcrum. When the force is applied on the
extreme of the bar more distant to the fulcrum, the force on the nearest extreme is greater.

In first-class levers, as the one depicted in the figure, the fulcrum is at an intermediate
position on the bar. A roman balance is an example of this class of levers.
In second-class levers, the fulcrum is at one extreme of the bar, the force is applied on the
other extreme, and the resisting force or load is at an intermediate position. A nutcracker is
an example of this class of levers.
In third-class levers, the fulcrum is at an extreme of the bar, the resisting force at the other
extreme, and the force is applied on an intermediate position. In this way, no mechanical
advantage is achieved, but the movement of an extreme of the bar is amplified. This
principle is used, for instance, in scythes.
In every lever, the mechanical advantage can be calculated in the same way. It only
depends on the magnitude of both forces and their arms (defined as the distance between
the forces and the fulcrum).
In order to reach equilibrium, the moments of both forces must be equal, so that

A compound pulley or block and tackle is a simple machine used to lift heavy
loads. It is made of a block of double-flanged wheels fixed to the roof and coupled,
by means of a rope, to another block of wheels. The heavy object hangs from the
lower block. It works like a single pulley, but a compound pulley does provide a
mechanical advantage, because the necessary applied force is reduced.
The applied force can be calculated by dividing the load's weight by the total
number of wheels in the compound pulley. A drawback of this configuration is that
a longer rope must be used. In the simpler case of the figure, the shift caused on
the rope by the applied force is twice the distance moved by the load, and the
applied force is only half the load's weight. So that

This mechanism allows transmission between two perpendicular shafts. The drive
shaft is always coupled to a bolt or worm gear, which transmits rotation to a gear,
sometimes called crown gear. When the worm gear completes a turn, there is a
forward motion of one tooth of the crown gear. However, the crown gear can not
turn the worm gear. There are worm gears inside mechanical counters.
For one turn of the crown, the worm gear completes as many turns as teeth has
the crown. Therefore, the speed ratio of this mechanism is simply

The link is made up of two cylindrical gears. This robust transmission mechanism
transmits rotation from one gear to another close gear. The two shafts coupled to
the gears must be parallel. In some situations the system is rather noisy, but useful
to transfer large power. Lubrication is needed to avoid the effects of friction. Spur
gears are present, for instance, inside typing machines. Note that the two gears
rotate in opposite directions.
Each gear has a given number of teeth and a primitive circumference's diameter.
These two values determine the pitch, which has to be the same for the two geats.
The smaller gear is sometimes called pinion.
The speed ratio can be calculated taking into account the number of teeth of each
gear, as