Experimental Objective The objective of this experiment was partly to compare the velocity ratios of a single-stage and double-stage geared winch, and partly to measure the corresponding mechanical advantage and efficiency under varying loads. Theoretical Background When focusing on simple machines their performances are evaluated based on mechanical advantage (M.A), velocity ratio (V.R), and efficiency. The paradox that one can relatively amplify the output force and still fail to proportionately amplify the output energy still baffles. This is so because work done is a product of force and distance. Vitally, according to the law of conservation of energy, it is surreal to obtain a greater output in energy than what is being injected into the machine. To this end, friction between the moving parts of a machine is the reason behind machines achieving efficiency shy of 100%. Consequently, simplifying the law of conservation of energy into a simple equation gives us: Input energy= output energy + friction Basically, when talking about efficiency one simply means the ratio of output energy to that of input energy expressed as a percentage. Thus, this is expressed as below: Efficiency= (output energy/input energy)*100% Of note, with respect to the initial equation, it is impossible for a machine to achieve 100% efficiency. The most that can be achieved is 98%. Nevertheless, its lower limit can be way below 50% (Uicker, Pennock & Shigley, 2003). The mechanical advantage “is a ratio of the load to that of the effort exerted on the machine by the operator” (Uicker, Pennock & Shigley, 2003). On factoring friction, the ratio is expressed as below: M.A = Load/Effort However, in an ideal situation the friction is overlooked hence, the resulting M.A obtained is referred to as a theoretical mechanical advantage (TA). On the other hand, when referring to the velocity ratio one simply means a ratio of the distance moved by the effort as exerted by an operator to that moved by the load but per unit time. This is simply expressed as below: V.R = effort distance per second/distance moved by the load per second With regards to this experiment, the main focus gears. As such, the velocity ratio is obtained by finding the ratio between the number of teeth of the driven wheel (N) to that of the driver wheel (n) i.e. N/n. Vitally, this ratio can be increased by several orders depending on the number of gears a system has. Basically, in a system of gears, it is not necessary to fix gears along a straight line; they can assume a parallel connection courtesy of a wheel-and-axel. In such a case, the total velocity ratio incorporates that of a wheel-and-axel i.e. radius of driver wheel (R) to that of the driven wheel (r). This arrangement can be represented as below: Fig. 1 shows a system of gears combined by wheel-and-axel. For the above system of gears the total velocity ratio is given as: N2/n2*N1/n1*R/r Experimental Procedures In this experimental setup, two pairs of twin experiments were performed. One pair was meant to test the velocity ratios for both single and double-staged systems while the other pair was meant to test M.A and efficiencies of the same. As such, a system of a geared winch (fig. 2) was fixed on a vertically mounted mounting p