Mechanical Reasoning Test Practice: Levers, Gears, Pulleys, Inclined Planes, Springs, Hydraulics & Belt Drives

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Solve six exam-style lever questions with moments (force × distance), compute the mechanical advantage, find where the pivot must sit to balance a loaded plank and how far out an extra weight must sit to balance a seesaw.
• Work out the speed and turning direction of every gear in a six-gear chain, see why the gears in between change the direction but not the final speed, then solve a three-stage compound train with PRODUCT.
• Solve six pulley systems: the effort from the number of supporting rope segments (with an efficiency where the question gives one), the rope you must pull, the work done by the effort, and the smallest number of segments for a given maximum pull.
• Find the push needed along five frictionless ramps from height and length, their mechanical advantage, the push on a ramp given by its angle with SIN and RADIANS, and the ideal effort on a screw jack from its pitch and handle radius.
• Find the extension and loaded length of six springs with Hooke's law, then the combined stiffness of two springs in series and how far a load stretches them side by side in parallel.
• Solve five hydraulic press questions: the pressure under the small piston, the force on the large piston and how far the large piston moves, then the force when the question gives piston diameters instead of areas.
• Solve five belt drives for the driven pulley's speed, the belt speed in metres per second and the driven pulley's direction for open and crossed belts, then the effort on a winch handle with the wheel-and-axle rule.
• Build the answer key of a 10-question mixed test as one formula per question, then score a fictional practice attempt and count the questions that went over the time budget per question.