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The Simple Machines of All Kinds...
This are some of the types of simple machines that is used in everyday life.
The Inclined Plane
The inclined plane is the simplest of simple
machines because to make it work, nothing moves. You move! Another name for an inclined
plane is a ramp. It can be as simple as the driveway leading to your school or
as sophisticated as the staircase in the Empire State Building. A ramp works by
helping you lift things more easily up to a higher level. It can be really
difficult to carry a box of stuff up a ladder. But carrying that same box up a
staircase is an easier job, and carrying it up a smooth ramp is even easier.
Remember, there's always a trade-off. The way an
inclined plane works is that to save effort, you must move things a greater
distance. If you compare the length of a ladder to that of a staircase going to
the same height, you'll find the ladder is much shorter. But it takes a lot
more effort to climb a ladder than to simply walk up a flight of stairs. The
ancient Egyptians figured this out over 3,000 years ago when they built their
pyramids. They used long, shallow ramps to help them move the heavy stones to
the top!
The Wedge
A wedge is really an inclined plane turned on
its side. But instead of helping you move things to a higher level, a wedge
helps you push things apart. The blades of a knife or a shovel are both wedges.
A wedge can also be round, like the tip of a nail, or the tines on your fork.
Basically, the wedge works just like a ramp: The narrower the wedge (or the
sharper the point of a wedge), the easier it is drive it in and push things
apart. But here's the trade-off: To split something apart really wide, you have
to push the wedge a long distance.
The Screw
The screw is really an inclined plane in the
round with a wedge at the tip. Think of a typical screw. The wedge is the
pointed end. The inclined plane is the thread that wraps around the screw.
Screws are used in many different places to hold things together.
Basically, a screw is like the ramp — and the width
of the thread is like the angle of an inclined plane. The wider the thread of a
screw, the harder it is to turn it. And here's the trade-off: If you've ever
had to put in a screw with really narrow threads, you've probably found that
you have to turn it a really long time to get it to go anywhere. Just like in a
ramp, the easier the effort, the longer the distance you have to move
something!
The Lever
In its simplest form, a lever is a stick that is
free to pivot or move back and forth at a certain point. Levers are probably
the most common simple machine because just about anything that has a handle on
it has a lever attached. The point on which the lever moves is called the
fulcrum. By changing the position of the fulcrum, you can gain extra power with
less effort. A good example of a lever is a see-saw. Let's say that you're
really light, and you want to lift a really heavy person on the opposite side.
If you put the fulcrum in the middle, you won't have a chance. But if you slide
the fulcrum closer to the heavy person, it will be easier to lift. Where's the
trade-off? Well, to get this helping hand, your side of the see-saw is much
longer (and higher off the ground), so you have to move it a much greater distance
to get the lift.
The Wheel and Axle
A wheel and axle is really two machines in one
because you can use each part in different ways. The first way is to roll
something along. Wheels help you move an object across the ground because they
cut down on the amount of friction between what you're trying to move and the
surface you're pulling it against. (The axle is the object that attaches the
wheel to the object it's moving.) Since only the very bottom of the wheel
touches the ground, there is less surface area to rub — and less friction.
Imagine pulling a little red wagon without any wheels! Generally speaking, the
bigger the wheel, the easier it is to make something roll.
The second way of using a wheel is like a lever in
the round. A door knob or a faucet on a sink are really round levers, and the
"fulcrum" is in the middle where the axle turns. Imagine if a door
knob was replaced with a little rod. It would be much harder to open the door!
Once again, there's a trade-off: The larger the diameter of the wheel, the less
effort you need to turn it, but you have to move the wheel a greater distance
to get the same work done.
The Pulley
The pulley is really a wheel and axle with a
rope or chain attached. A pulley makes work seem easier because it changes the
direction of motion to work with gravity. Let's say you have to lift a heavy
load, like a bale of hay, up to the second floor of a barn. You could tie a
rope to the bale of hay, stand on the second floor, and pull it straight up. Or
you could put a pulley at the second floor, stand at the first floor, and lift
the bale of hay by pulling straight down. It would be the exact amount of work
in either case, but the action of pulling down feels easier because you're
working with the force of gravity.
A pulley really saves effort when you have more
than one pulley working together. By looping a rope around two, three, or even
four pulleys, you can really cut down on the effort needed to lift something.
The trade-off? Well, as you increase the number of pulleys, you also increase
the distance you have to pull the rope. In other words, if you use two pulleys,
it takes half the effort to lift something, but you have to pull the rope twice
as far. Three pulleys will result in one-third the effort — but the distance
you have to pull the rope is tripled!
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