Pulley cable or belt. The drive element of a pulley system can be a rope, cable, belt, or chain. Hero of Alexandria identified the "pulley" as one of six simple machines used to lift weights. Pulleys are assembled to form a block and tackle in order to provide mechanical advantage to apply large forces. Pulleys are also assembled as part of belt and chain drives in order to transmit power from one rotating shaft to another. A set of pulleys assembled so that they rotate independently on the same axle form a block. Two blocks with a rope attached to one
Block and tackle output force), formula_5 is the ideal mechanical advantage of the system (which is the same as the number of segments of line extending from the moving block), and formula_6 is the mechanical efficiency of the system (equal to one for an ideal frictionless system; a fraction less than one for real-world systems with energy losses due to friction and other causes). If formula_7 is the number of sheaves in the purchase, and there is a roughly formula_8% loss of efficiency at each sheave due to friction, then: This approximation is more accurate for smaller values of formula_7 and formula_8. A