Physics question?

Question

Wire cutters are tools with short handles. They are used for cutting thin pieces of wire. Bolt cutters have much longer handles, and they are used for cutting through thick metal bars. Explain as fully as you can why the tools have handels of different lengths.
Thanks
xx

Answer 1

Wires tend to be quite thin and therefore easy to cut,with very little leverage required to do the cutting therefore the handles of wire cutters do not need to be that long. Bolt cutters on the other hand are required for cutting much thicker materials that require a lot more effort to cut, therefore longer handles are required to give extra leverage.

Answer 2

Hello,
Wire cutters only have short handles because they only have to cut through thin and weak wires so you do not need as much leverage as when you are cutting through big metal bars. So bolt cutters are designed so they have a lot of leverage so you can cut through thick, strong metal bars. Its all based on the amount of leverage you need to cut through the metal you need to. Its all based on simple Physics.

Answer 3

This tools works as a result of the momentum of the power you press with . This momentum is power multiplied with the arm. The arm is the distance between pressing point of your hand to rotation bolt of the tool.
If you press with a power of 100N and the distance is 10cm, the momentum is 1000Ncm.

You can use a tool with longer handles so the distance is 30cm.
Then the momentum is 3000Ncm. Then you are tree times stronger.

Answer 4

the law of the lever! You're applying more force to cut a bolt, so you need a higher ratio on your lever - longer handles.

Answer 5

A longer lever exerts more force on the same fulcrum than does a shorter one.