Mechanical Advantage
The mechanical advantage of a wedge can be calculated by dividing the length of the slope by the wedge's width:
The more acute, or narrow, the angle of a wedge, the greater the ratio of the length of its slope to its width, and thus the more mechanical advantage it will yield.
However, in an elastic material such as wood, friction may bind a narrow wedge more easily than a wide one. This is why the head of a splitting maul has a much wider angle than that of an axe.
Read more about this topic: Wedge (mechanical Device)
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