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Simple Machines

Simple machines are all around us and include levers, inclined planes, wedges, screws, pulleys, gears, and wheels and axles. They allow us to do work with less force over a greater distance in exchange. The document provides examples of simple machines and suggests experiments kids can do with common household items to learn about how simple machines provide mechanical advantage and make tasks easier.

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Hartford Courant
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223 views1 page

Simple Machines

Simple machines are all around us and include levers, inclined planes, wedges, screws, pulleys, gears, and wheels and axles. They allow us to do work with less force over a greater distance in exchange. The document provides examples of simple machines and suggests experiments kids can do with common household items to learn about how simple machines provide mechanical advantage and make tasks easier.

Uploaded by

Hartford Courant
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sky

How Simple Machines Work


ABOVE Earth FUN TO DO
BELOW
Simple machines are everywhere. One way to test them: break out the tools!
Simple machines Safety note: Kids, get help from an adult science partner. Always be careful
using tools, and try these experiments in a place where a bit of a mess is
include the lever, inclined plane, wedge, screw, pulley, gears, and the okay (i.e., not in the living room).
wheel and axle. Some of them are variations on others; for example, Some things you can use:
the screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. Claw-ended hammer, nails, screws, scrap pieces of wooden board, wooden
wedge (a door stop works well), Velcro, screwdrivers (at least some should
Though simple, they are powerful, and very useful. The key to simple be flat-ended), an empty paint can, a rubber mallet, metal or PVC pipe,
machines is a trade-off: force for distance. When using a simple flat-ended metal dowel or peg, pliers
machine, you may have to push or pull further (more distance), but you Some experiments you could try:
won’t have to push or pull as hard (less force). Think about the inclined 1) Leverage: With levers, size matters. Use a hammer or mallet to tightly
plane or ramp. Pulling something up a ramp, you’ll have to travel further hammer shut a paint can (preferably an empty one!) Then try to pry
than if you went straight up (more distance), but you won’t have to pull open the lid with a flat ended screwdriver --- start with the smallest
as hard (less force.) Sometimes, the simple machines can be used in one you have. Start by pushing gently. Then re-hammer it on and try
again, using a much longer screwdriver. (You could lengthen the small
reverse: push harder over a shorter distance. screwdriver by putting some pipe over the handle.)

Did you know? 2) Try a type of inclined plane: the wedge. Take two blocks of wood, and
use Velcro to stick them to each other. Try pulling them apart with your
Simple machines are found everywhere. hands. Then use a wedge – put the point of a wooden door stop
Wedges: scissors, key, plow, zipper between the boards and tap it with a hammer.
Levers: hammer, baseball bat, wheelbarrow, 3) More levers: Hammer a nail halfway into a board. Grab it with pliers and
scissors, piano, bicycle brakes try to pull it out. Now try using the claw end of a hammer to extract it.
Wheel + axle: steering wheel, faucet, 4) The pointy end of a nail is a wedge. Try hammering one into a board.
wind turbine, dental drill Then try hammering in a flat ended device (like a piece of metal dowel).
Gears: car engine, windshield wipers 5) Turn of the screw: Hammer a nail halfway into a board. Then screw a
Pulleys: Elevator, escalator, crane screw halfway in. Try extracting both with the claw end of the hammer,
Screw: faucet, power drill, meat grinder as you did in experiment #3.
6) Attach two boards together with nails, and two other boards using
screws. Try separating them with a wedge, like in experiment #2.
Could you feel the differences that different simple machines made?
With the lever in experiment #1, it’s easier to open the can with a screwdriver
(a.k.a., a lever) that is longer. If you measure, you see that with the longer
lever it means you push down further (greater distance), but you don’t
have to push as hard as with a short lever. This increased ease is called
mechanical advantage. Using the claw end of a hammer as a lever gives
you a mechanical advantage when pulling out a nail.
As long as the lever is strong enough, and it rests on something
(called a fulcrum) strong enough, there’s no limit to mechanical advantage.
A long enough, strong enough lever would let you easily lift a tractor trailer.
A screw creates extra friction with the wood, so it holds the boards in
experiment #6 together better than the nail.
Find It In The News
Look at the list of items above, or look up more simple
machine devices. How many appear in newspaper stories?
Learn More
• Go to howtosmile.org and search “simple machines” for lots more experiments
• David MacAulay’s book “The Way Things Work” shows how simple For students who are blind, learning disabled or print challenged,
visit CRIS Radio at http://www.crisradio.org and click Kids On-Demand
machines and lots of other machines function
for a free audio version of Geography Connections.

SkySky
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Children’s Museum.For more
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NIE, visit www.courantnie.comoror860.241.3847
visit www.courantnie.com 860.241-3847.

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