On this voyage, the research team of Cameron C., Greg, Kristen, and Liz studied mechanical advantage for their presentation project. To conduct their experiment, they rigged a block-and-tackle system designed to lift a fixed load — in this case a lead weight assembled just for this rig — a few inches off the deck, using from one to five pulleys to distribute the load. As the students haul on the line, a spring scale measures how many pounds of force they must exert to lift the weight. In addition, the students measure the length of the line they need to pull through the simple machine in order to raise the weight the same distance while using different pulley configurations.