A pulley is a simple machine consisting of a grooved wheel and a rope which runs through it. The pulley can be thought of as a kind of lever if one thinks of the grooved wheel as the fulcrum of the lever. Then the effort force is the force applied on one end of the pulley rope, and the resistance force is the weight that is lifted at the opposite end of the pulley rope.
In the simplest form of a pulley, the grooved wheel is attached to some immovable object, such as a ceiling or beam. When a person pulls down on one end of the pulley rope, an object at the opposite end of the rope is raised. In a fixed pulley of this design, the mechanical advantage is one. That is, a person can lift a weight equal to the force applied. The advantage of the pulley is one of direction. An object can be made to move upward or downward with such a pulley. Venetian blinds are a simple example of the fixed pulley.
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