Mechanical advantage device
A simple machine that exhibits mechanical advantage is called a mechanical advantage device - e.g.: Pulleys. Consider lifting a weight with rope and pulleys. A rope looped through a pulley attached to a fixed spot, e.g. a barn roof rafter, and attached to the weight is called a "single pulley". It has a mechanical advantage (MA) = 1 (assuming frictionless bearings in the pulley), moving no mechanical advantage (or disadvantage) however advantageous the change in direction may be. A "single movable pulley" has an MA of 2 (assuming frictionless bearings in the pulley). Consider a pulley attached to  a weight being lifted. A rope passes around it, with one end attached to a fixed point above, e.g. a barn roof rafter, and a pulling force is applied upward to the other end with the two lengths parallel. In this situation the distance the lifter must pull the rope becomes twice the distance the weight travels, allowing the force applied to be halved. Note: if an additional pulley is used to change the direction of the rope, e.g. the person doing the work wants to stand on the ground instead of on a rafter, the mechanical advantage is not  increased. By looping more ropes around more pulleys we can construct a block and tackle to continue to increase the mechanical advantage. For example, if we have two pulleys attached to the rafter, two pulleys attached to the weight, one end attached to the rafter, and someone standing on the rafter pulling the rope, we have a mechanical advantage of four. Again note: if we add another pulley so that someone may stand on the ground and pull down, we still have a mechanical advantage of four. Here are examples where the fixed point is not obvious: Screws. The theoretical  mechanical advantage for a screw can be calculated using the following equation: where Note that the actual mechanical advantage of a screw "system" is greater, as a screwdriver or other screw driving system has a mechanical advantage as well.