An automobile steering wheel is shown. what is the ideal mechanical advantage? if the ama is 8, what is the efficiency of the steering wheel?

1. Ideal Mechanical Advantage (IMA): 9

Explanation:

For a wheel and axle system like the steering wheel, the IMA is given by:

where

is the radius of the wheel

is the radius of the axle

For the steering wheel of the problem, we see that and , so the IMA is

2. Efficiency: 88.9%

Explanation:

The efficiency of a system is defined as the ratio between the AMA (actual mechanical advantage) and the IMA:

In this problem, AMA=8 and IMA=9, so the efficiency is