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

Cloth offers much less resistance than offered by metals. Therefore we do not require a large mechanical advantage from a scissor to cut cloth. At the same time a large mechanical advantage is required by the shear used for cutting metal, hence its handle should be long and the blades short. (M. A. = effort arm / load arm).