Can you lift more than your body weight, using only one pulley and a rope?

Question

you are not secured to the ground, pulling downward on a rope, through a pulley, is it possible to lift more than your own body weight. Remember only one pulley.

Answer 1

Steve has a good idea but it's wrong. First, you'd tie the other end of the rope down, not up. Second, the question requires you to pull downward on the rope, not upward on the pulley.

Fix the rope to a tree and connect the rope the way you would expect, one end on the weight. Make a loop in the other end that's a foot above the ground. If you stand in the loop, you'll just hang there because the weight is heavier than you. But if you jump on the loop, you'll have inertia added to your weight and you can lift a heavier one. Of course, the weight will come down again and then up you go. But you did lift the weight.

Answer 2

Easy. Attach the pulley to the weight to be lifted, one end of the rope to something above, and pull up. A force of 1/2 your body weight will lift a weight equal to your body weight.

This is a VERY poorly worded question. A really strong person could lay the pulley and rope on top of a weight equal to his body weight and simply lift everything directly, therby satisfying your request as asked. Not to mention several other interpretations of the ?

Answer 3

If you are strong enough to lift your own weight, yes. Just keep applying force on the rope and you will go up.

Mountain climbers lift their own weight all the time, so it is possible.

Answer 4

If you have amazing upper body strength, yeah you probably could. I would think it would take a lot of work though.

Answer 5

If you're pulling straight down then no, you'll only pull yourself up I think. If you pulled from an angle, then yeah.

Answer 6

Nope, absolutely not. If that was possible then elevators (which use counterweights) would never work.

Answer 7

no.