I'm well aware of the formula to calculate tension, however, given a real world situation where you have a closed pulley system. How do you measure the force (i.e., tension) required to pull on the rope in the pulley?
I've thought of buying a portable luggage scale and affixing it onto a point on the rope and pulling the scale in parallel to the rope at a constant speed. This will give me a weight measurement, which I'll then be able to calculate the force from.
This seems like an awful way of measuring something. Can you describe some better ways of measuring, which will help me calculate the force required to pull on this pulley?
What if I wanted to pull on the pulley at a certain speed? How do I go about calculating that?