[poszlem]

Pulleys are one of those things you never realize you need until you learn about them. Then, you suddenly understand just how useful they can be. Understanding the basics of rope rigging, pulleys, and mechanical advantage has made my life so much easier. Whether it's camping, hanging hammocks and tarps, using a pulley system to pull out tree stumps, securing things to my bike or pickup truck, or carrying a lot of gear at once, all of this becomes much simpler once you grasp the fundamentals of pulleys.

I honeslty think this should be taught in school, not just in physics classes, but as part of some kind of a "Life 101" course.

[esaym]

Kind of like knots...

[tempnow987]

Pulleys and knots can go hand in hand.

With ropes you can start with a basic loop that acts as a pulley. Butterfly, wireman's loop, farmers something - I forget the names.

But you basically create a loop that let's you double back your rope. With a lot of modern rope they are slippery enough you get pretty good mechanical advantage. Some folks then go to a taught line hitch or something to even keep things adjustable basically. Key is usually to give yourself enough space to tighten, and I skip the taughtline hitch in most cases.