Unequal Scissor Design Assistance

[fieroboom]

Hey all, brand new to the forum, and I seem to have stumped myself...
As a personal project, I'm designing a type of scissor lift with unequal arms.
I've got everything figured out for building it, but I wanted to take it a step further and create a calculator for myself. Given the angle of the scissors at any point, I can calculate all the angles, platform heights, etc, but what I'd really like to be able to do is work backwards, and only provide the overall platform angle, scissor lengths, and platform lengths, then calculate everything from there. Have a look at the attached image, and see if it's solvable.

In the image, I have indicated to calculate the angle "c", but really, finding ANY scissor angle will give me all the info I need in order to determine everything else. Any assistance/formulas are greatly appreciated!

Please let me know if the image doesn't make sense.
Thanks so much!

UnequalScissorLift.jpg

[Kelly_Bramble]

Welcome to EE!!

Here's what is already available on EE...

https://www.engineersedge.com/mechan...issor-lift.htm

https://www.engineersedge.com/mechan...t-analysis.htm

I think the mathematical method of sections will get you your answers as well..

https://www.engineeringmotion.com/vi...truss-analysis

https://www.engineeringmotion.com/vi...ructural-analy

[zeke]

Tan(a)=tan(c)*(L3-L2)/(L3+L2)