Lever Mechanical Advantage Calculator

Work out lever mechanical advantage instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Lever Mechanical Advantage Calculator

A lever balances moments, so effort times effort arm equals load times load arm. The mechanical advantage is the ratio of the arms - 1.2 m against 0.3 m gives four, so a 600 N load needs only 150 N of effort. Nothing is free: the effort end must travel four times as far, keeping the work the same.

Formulas

Moment balance

effort x effort arm = load x load arm

Mechanical advantage

MA = effort arm / load arm

Worked example

With the default values below, Lever Mechanical Advantage Calculator returns Mechanical Advantage of 4.000. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Distance from pivot to effortminimum 0 m: 1.2 m
Distance from pivot to loadminimum 0 m: 0.3 m
Load to be liftedminimum 0 N: 600 N

Results

Mechanical Advantage: 4.000
Effort Force Needed: 150.00 N
Effort Travel Per Unit Of Load Travel: 4.000
Load Expressed As A Mass: 61.183 kg

Step by step

1Values used
2Moment balance
3Mechanical advantage
4Mechanical Advantage= 4.000
5Effort Force Needed= 150.00 N
6Effort Travel Per Unit Of Load Travel= 4.000
7Load Expressed As A Mass= 61.183 kg

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a lever create energy?

No. Force is multiplied and distance divided by the same factor, so work in equals work out apart from friction.

Which lever class is this?

The formula covers all three. First class has the pivot between effort and load, second the load between, third the effort between - and third class always has MA below one.