Question

Explain why scissors for cutting cloth may have blades longer than the handles, but shears for cutting metals have short blades and long handles.

Answer 1

• A pair of scissors used to cut a piece of cloth has blades longer than the handles, so the blades move longer on the cloth than the movement at the handles.
• Shears used for cutting metals have short blades and long handles because this enables us to overcome a large resistive force with a small effort.