Leverage: Difference between revisions

Leverage (view source)

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 ===One times leverage?===
-Leverage means the “amplification of an original force”. It doesn't mean “borrowing” (any more than it means “use” or “fill out”), although people frequently misuse it that way. As a result, it is a metaphor which does't bear close examination. A lever which produces “no leverage” would stop at the fulcrum. It wouldn’t lift anything. It would be worse than not using a lever at all.
+Leverage means the “amplification of an original force”. It doesn’t mean “borrowing” (any more than it means “use” or “fill out”), although people frequently misuse it that way. As a result, it is a metaphor which does't bear close examination. A lever which produces “no leverage” would stop at the fulcrum. It wouldn’t lift anything. It would be worse than not using a lever at all.
 To - er - *leverage* the metaphor, let’s say picking up a brick, without using a lever, takes one unit of force. Now, apply a lever which generates “one times” leverage: for every unit of force you push down on the lever, you get one unit of force up on the other side of the fulcrum. The force you apply is still just your own investment. You haven’t borrowed anything. You’ve just used a lever to do what you could have done without one. Get your kicks -