lever formula

[projectguy]

Hello all, this is not so much a school science project rather than a father son project, but I figured it would be a good excuse to work some science learning in at the same time. My son and I want to build a wall bed for him using pistons, similar to ones on you cars rear hatch, for helping to raise and lower the bed. Kits are available at places like http://www.wallbed.com/mechanism.html where you can also see a picture of what we want to accomplish. The bed will rotate on a pivot about 1 foot from the end of the bed and the pistons will be about 6 inches from the end of the bed. I need a formula to figure the piston force for a given weight (weight of the bed frame and matress) so that given a certain force at the foot of the bed, it can be raised and lowered. I was going to use the regular lever formula, but since the force (weight of the bed due to gravity) and the weight to be lifted are complised of the weight of the frame and matress on either side of the pivot. Does that make the distance of the weight and force to be halfway between the pivot and either end of the bed? Any suggestions or formulas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[OneBriiguy]

Hello all, this is not so much a school science project rather than a father son project, but I figured it would be a good excuse to work some science learning in at the same time. My son and I want to build a wall bed for him using pistons, similar to ones on you cars rear hatch, for helping to raise and lower the bed. Kits are available at places like http://www.wallbed.com/mechanism.html where you can also see a picture of what we want to accomplish. The bed will rotate on a pivot about 1 foot from the end of the bed and the pistons will be about 6 inches from the end of the bed. I need a formula to figure the piston force for a given weight (weight of the bed frame and matress) so that given a certain force at the foot of the bed, it can be raised and lowered. I was going to use the regular lever formula, but since the force (weight of the bed due to gravity) and the weight to be lifted are complised of the weight of the frame and matress on either side of the pivot. Does that make the distance of the weight and force to be halfway between the pivot and either end of the bed? Any suggestions or formulas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Since no one has responded, you might try the Physical Science forum to see if anyone there can help. I did a bit of looking around, and I didn't find anything helpful. Sorry.