A nutcracker is made of two handles joined by a hinge at one end.
A nut is placed 2.5 cm from the hinge.
A person squeezes the handles with a force of 40 N, at a distance of 12.5 cm from the hinge.
Assume that all the forces act at right angles to the handles.
Calculate the moment of the person's force about the hinge, in N m\text{N m}N m.
Calculate the force that the handle exerts on the nut.
The person's force and the force on the nut act on the same side of the hinge.
Explain why the force on the nut is larger than the person's force.
A different nut needs a force of 300 N to crack it. The nut is placed 2.5 cm from the hinge.
The handles are 15 cm long.
Determine whether the person can crack this nut with a force of 40 N.
102 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Physics 9.2 Moments, covering 9.2.1 Rotational effects of forces and moments, 9.2.2 The principle of moments, and 9.2.3 Levers and gears. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.