Rafael swings a baseball bat with a force of 25 N. The baseball bat exerts a force of 5 N on the baseball. What is the mechanical advantage of the baseball bat?

Imagine that Rafael hit the baseball with a force of 25 N and what came out was a 5 N force.

The bat did not give Rafael an advantage, because the force that came out was less than that applied.

Mechanical Advantage in this case = Force output / Force applied

= 5 / 25 = 1/5 = 0.2

Mechanical advantage = 0.2. This is actually a mechanical disadvantage.

Because the value is less than 1, if it were greater than 1, then it would really be an advantage.