The mechanical advantage of a gear train is its gear ratio. The gear ratio (V_r) is the product of the gear ratios between the pairs of meshed gears. Let N represent the number of teeth for each gear:

V_r = \( \frac{N_1}{N_2} \) \( \frac{N_2}{N_3} \) \( \frac{N_3}{N_4} \) ... \( \frac{N_n}{N_{n+1}} \)

In this problem, we have three gears so the equation becomes:

V_r = \( \frac{N_1}{N_2} \) \( \frac{N_2}{N_3} \) = \( \frac{22}{12} \) \( \frac{12}{2} \) = \( \frac{22}{2} \) = 11

The mechanical advantage (MA) of an inclined plane is the effort distance divided by the resistance distance. In order to increase mechanical advantage, this ratio must increase which means making the effort distance longer and this can be accomplished by lengthening the length of the ramp.

Ceramics are mixtures of metallic and nonmetallic elements that withstand exteme thermal, chemical, and pressure environments. They have a high melting point, low corrosive action, and are chemically stable. Examples include rock, sand, clay, glass, brick, and porcelain.

Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of equal volumes of a substance and water and is measured by a hyrdometer.

A block and tackle is a combination of one or more fixed pulleys and one or more movable pulleys where the fixed pulleys change the direction of the effort force and the movable pulleys multiply it. The mechanical advantage is equal to the number of times the effort force changes direction and can be increased by adding more pulley wheels to the system. An easy way to find the mechanical advantage of a block and tackle pulley system is to count the number of ropes that support the resistance.