system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how do pulleys make it possible to lift things with less effort?

I have seen it in action but it feels like witchcraft where you have a stone that is impossible to lift if you have a rope and one pulley.

If you add extra pulleys, the same stone is easier to lift. How does this work?
gpt
You trade distance for force. If you have no pulleys, you pull the rope 1 meter and the other end raises 1 meter.

If you have a single pulley setup, you get a 2:1 "conversion". If you pull the rope 1 meter, the other end raises 0.5 meters, but with twice the force. Repeat as necessary with however many pulleys, so that even a child can lift a 2-ton weight, but they might have to run the length of a soccer pitch to lift it a meter off the ground.