The figure beside shows an arrangement using four pulleys. Starting with pulley number 4, we can consider the equilibrium of all pulleys and thus find out that the effort required is one eigth of the load. Thus, the mechanical advantage of this system is 8. However, in stating so, we have neglected frictional forces. Velocity ratio is 1/8, which means in order to raise a load to 1 unit height, effort has to be moved by a distance of 8 units.
