A pulley is a grooved wheel
with a rope running along the groo
ve or, in other words, it is a mechanical pulling or lifting device.
There are a few different kind is a pulley that has
no additional force applied to it and the only change in force occurs in the
direction of the rope.
In a fixed
pulley the single pulley is attached to a beam
or
stable base and is
used to change
the direction of the pull.
A 
movable
pulley is a pulley that is
attached to an object and not a base.
A movable pulley
increases the force one exerts on the machine. In a movable pulley the load is supported by two
segments of rope so that only half of the load is needed to lift an object
The rope
must be pulled a farther distance as a result of this.
A compound pulley
is a pulley that uses both a movable pulley and a f
ixed pulley to change
the direction of the effort force.
The more
segments of rope there are, the less the amount of force one must apply to lift
up an object.
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