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June 10

Simulate heavy weight with levels.

In the gym, people normally pick x kg of iron weights when they want to exercise lifting x kg. Wouldn't it make financially sense to use a level to increase the load, (say increase by 10x putting the weight at 10 cm of a 1 m level) and use a 5 kg weight to lift 50 kg? --Bumptump (talk) 18:17, 10 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean a lever? You could also use a pulley or gears to get mechanical advantage. Weight machines do use various kinds of mechanical advantage: see [1] for example. However, if you change the mechanical advantage, you'll also change the distance the weights need to travel as the user completes the motion. For example, if you make 5 kg of weights feel like 50 kg, the weights will also need to move through 10 times as great a distance. Making the machine 10x as large will have implications for its cost, space requirements, and safety, which you'd have to balance against the cost of the weights themselves. --Amble (talk) 18:48, 10 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you really want to reduce the need for weights, you can make an exercise machine with other forms of resistance, like friction or springs. --Amble (talk) 19:12, 10 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]