Easier - A simple machine is a device that helps make work easier; a device that makes it easier to move something. Some simple machines are a wheel, a pulley, a lever, a screw, and an inclined plane. Harder - Most machines consist of a number of elements, such as gears and ball bearings, that work together in a complex way. No matter how complex a machine, it is still based on the compounding of six types of simple machines. The six types of machines are the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw. Background Information for Simple Machines from National Museum of Science and Technology , Canada http://www.science-tech.nmstc.ca/english/schoolzone/Info_Simple_Machines.cfm Here you can find the answers to some commonly asked questions about simple machines. The Elements of Machines: Simple Machines from Leonardo"s Workshop http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html Learn about devices that make work easier to do by providing some tradeoff between the force applied and the distance over which the force is applied. Also provides a brief introduction to uses of a gear, cam, crank and rod, chain and belt, and the ratchet. Levers from Beakman & Jax http://www.beakman.com/lever/lever.html Play with levers and find out how work from the fulcrum to the load to the effort. (Wait for second page to come) Marvelous Machines http://www.galaxy.net:80/~k12/machines/index.shtml This website provides a series of experiments about simple machines: levers, wheels and inclined planes. They were developed for third grade students. (Comes up slowly )

After exploring some or all of the websites below, complete one or more of these activities: Investigate Wheels with Your Bicycle. Go to PBS Teachersource"s website and use your bicycle to learn about the wheel. Find Out How Stuff Works. Check out How Stuff Works . Look for a device that uses a simple machine as part of how it works. Create a poster showing how it works. Gear Up with a Tricycle & Bicycle. Visit PBS Teachersource"s site and follow the procedures there to learn a lot more about gears. Complete a Simple Machines WebQuest. Follow or adapt the procedures found at one of these webQuest sites: 1) Exploring Simple Machines by Paula Markowitz (Grade 4) http://www.lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/Machines/Machines.htm 2) Simple Machines http://www.eng.iastate.edu/twt/Course/packet/labs/wheels&leverLab.htm 3) Simple Machines WebQuest (Grade 4-6) http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/hschool/webq/webq8/jjquest.htm 4) Simple Machines http://www.beth.k12.pa.us/schools/wwwclass/mcosgrove/simple.htm 5) Simple Machines Webquest http://www.jsd.k12.ak.us/ab/el/simplemachines.html Complete an Online Simple Machines Activity. Learn more about simple machines by following the directions at A Time for Simple Machines . You may also want to test your knowledge at Gadget Anatomy . Complete Some Simple Machine Experiments. Find lots of experiments at sites like Marvelous Machines and Motion, Energy and Simple Machines .

Websites For Kids Simple Machine Page for Kids http://www.san-marino.k12.ca.us/~summer1/machines/simplemachines.html This is a page on simple machines for kids with pictures. Simple Machines (Part of a ThinkQuest project: E"Ville Mansion! ) http://library.thinkquest.org/3447/simpmach.htm Learn about four simple machines (Inclined planes, pulley systems, levers, and the wheel and axle). All are mechanisms that convert energy to a more useful form. More Simple Machine Websites Mechanisms and Simple Machines from Introduction to Mechanisms at Carnegie Mellon University http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rapidproto/mechanisms/chpt2.html Here is advanced level material that covers inclined planes, gears, pulleys, and more. Motion, Energy and Simple Machines by J.S. Mason http://www.necc.mass.edu/MRVIS/MR3_13/start.htm This site investigates Newton"s Laws of Motion and the concepts of potential and kinetic energy. The concepts of force, friction, energy transfer, and mechanical advantage are explored as you build simple machines and investigate there operation. Oh No Lego® Wedgies! from Weird Richard http://weirdrichard.com:80/wedge.htm Explore the wedge, the active twin of the inclined plane. It does useful work by moving. In contrast, the inclined plane always remains stationary. Related Websites from Weird Richard: 2) Ladies and Gentlemen...The Inclined Plane! http://weirdrichard.com/inclined.htm 3) Oh Goody, Even More on Gears! http://weirdrichard.com/gears.htm 3) Those Crazy Lego® Screws! http://weirdrichard.com/screw.htm This site houses a collection of over seventy photographs of common, everyday simple machines. Simple Machines Demo (Pulley and Levers) http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/phys/courses/demos/simp.htm This demonstration explores the mechanical advantage of pulleys and levers and evaluates the concept of torque. Spotlight on Simple Machines from "inQuiry Almanack " at Franklin Institute http://sln.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html Here you learn about simple machines that make work easier: inclined plane, lever, wedge, screw, pulley, and the wheel and axle. Websites for Teachers A First-Class Job http://www.aimsedu.org/Activities/oldSamples/FirstClass/job1.html What happens when the position of the fulcrum on a first-class lever is changed? Bicycles by J.P. Crotty from Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1987/6/87.06.01.x.html#h This is the site of a narrative unit plan that begins with the circle and proceeds to investigation of simple machines using the bicycle. Sketching Gadget Anatomy at The Museum of Science http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/SketchGadgetAnatomy.html The idea for this lesson is that close observation and sketching lead to a better understanding of how machines work. Simple Machines (Grades 3-4) by C. Huddle http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/K- 12/Summer_Training/KaeAvenueES/SIMPLE_MACHINES.html These activities are designed to give students experiences in using simple machines. Similar Websites: 2) Simple Machines (Grade 3) by L. Wilkins http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ylp/Units/Curriculum_Units/95-96/Simple_Machines_LWilkins/identify_simple_machines.html 3) Simple Machines (Grades 4-8) by B. Campbell

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Simple machines are extremely important to everyday life. They make stuff that is normally difficult a piece of cake. There are several types of simple machines. The first simple machine is a lever. A lever consists of a fulcrum, load, and effort force. A fulcrum is the support. The placing of the fulcrum changes the amount of force and distance it will take in order to move an object. The load is the applied force. The effort force is the force applied on the opposite side of the load. Levers can be placed in three classes. The 1st class levers are objects like pliers where the fulcrum is at the center of the lever. The 2nd class of levers are objects that have the fulcrum on the opposite side of the applied force like a nutcracker. The 3rd and final class is objects like crab claws. These objects of the load at one end and the fulcrum on the other.

An inclined plane is another simple machine. Inclined planes are also known as ramps. Ramps make a trade off between distance and force. No matter how steep the ramp, the work is still the same. A winding road on a mountain side is a good example of a ramp. Some simple machines are modified inclined planes. The wedge is one of those machines. One or two inclined planes make up a wedge. Saws, knives,needles, and axes are made from wedges. The screw is another modified inclined plane. Screws decrease the force but increase the distance. The ridges are called threads. A couple of simple machines are made with wheels. The wheel and axle is one of these machines.

These are made with a rod joined to the center of a wheel. They can either increase distance or force, depending on the size of the wheel. The pulley is another machine that uses wheels. The are a wheel with a groove in the center with a rope or chain stretched around it. The load attaches to one end and the effort is applied to the other on all pulleys. There are two types of pulleys. The fixed pulley stays in one place while the wheel spins. Movable pulleys attach to objects. Several pulleys can be used at one time. A good example of a pulley system is an escalator. Simple machines make up compound machines. We use these machines daily. Life would be difficult without simple machines.

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The wheel and axle , the inclined plane , the wedge , the , and the screw . Several of these simple machines are related to each other. But, each has a specific purpose in the world of doing work.

There are special tools for measuring the force necessary to move an object. These are known as force meters. They use a spring and a hook to determine how much pull is required to slide an object up an inclined plane. Really very simple to use.

Compound Machines

Simple machines can be combined together to form compound machines. Many of our everyday tools and the objects we use are really compound machine . Scissors are a good example. The edge of the blades are wedges. But the blades are combined with a lever to make the two blades come together to cut.

A lawnmower combines wedges (the blades) with a wheel and axle that spins the blades in a circle. But there is even more. The engine probably works in combination of several simple machines and the handle that you use to push the lawnmower around the yard is a form of a lever. So even something complicated can be broken down into the simplest of machines.

Take a look around you — can you figure out what simple machines make up a can opener, the hand cranked pencil sharpener, the ice dispenser in the refrigerator or the stapler? Just be careful, though. In our modern times, many things rely on electronics and light waves to function and are not made of simple machines. But even then, you may be surprised. The turntable in your microwave oven is a wheel and axle. The lid to the laptop is connected to the pad by a hinge or lever.

Simple machines may be simple — but they are simply everywhere.

A Word or Two About Rube

Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist who lived between 1883 and 1970. His life was spent creating art and sculptures, but his most famous work was for his "inventions." These inventions were a series of simple machines put together in a complex fashion to accomplish something very simple, but it took many steps to get there. Contests have been run for many years since Mr. Goldberg first created his unique ideas. In the contests people try to come up with new ways to turn on a light, or start a toaster using these combinations of the simple machines to wow judges and audiences for their unique way of doing these simple tasks.

Rube Goldberg machines are fun to watch and to build. Visit this site for some fun — see if you can identify each of the simple machines as they work together in this animation of a Rube Goldberg gadget designed to get this guy out of bed in the morning. Click .

For more information about Rube Goldberg"s life and his art, click .

A screwdriver is used to pry the lid off a can of paint. What type of lever is the screwdriver in this instance? 1st Class Lever 2nd Class Lever 3rd Class Lever It’s actually acting as an inclined plane. 10

12 3.0 8.3 25 75 10

29 1.7 3.5 28 350 10

Participant Scores 12 Jacob Joey Daniel David Nicole B.

A single pulley is used to hoist a safe with a mass of 45. 0 kg
A single pulley is used to hoist a safe with a mass of 45.0 kg. If the machine is 100% efficient, what effort force will be required to hoist the safe? 45.0 N 90.0 N 205 N 266 N 441 N 10

A snow shovel is an example of which type of lever? (Hint: The handle of the shovel is the fulcrum.) 1st Class 2nd Class 3rd Class 10

How long must an inclined plane be to push a 100 kg object to a height of 2.0 meters using a force of 200 N? Friction can be ignored. 2.0 m 9.8 m 50 m 100 m 200 m 400 m 10

A wheel and axle machine requires an effort force of 5.0 N to lift a load with a mass of 5.1 kg. If the machine is ideal and has a wheel radius of 12 cm, what is the radius of the axle? 1.0 cm 1.2 cm 5.0 cm 10 cm 1.2 m 2.4 m 10

Participant Scores 28 Jacob Joey Daniel David Mackenzie

20 N 25 N 196 N 245 N 1960 N Answer Now 10

What force will be required to push a 500 N box to a height of 2.50 meters on a ramp that is 10.0 meters long and 85% efficient? 4.00 N 50.0 N 106 125 N 147 N 10

1 2 3 4 5 10

0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 Answer Now 10

Participant Scores 44 Jacob Mackenzie 39 Nicole F. Joey Daniel

A ramp is 12 meters long and 3.0 meters high. It takes 145 N of force to push a 400 N crate up the ramp. Determine the efficiency of the ramp. .36 % .69 % 3.0 % 8.2 % 36 % 69 % 145 % 10

An object is placed 1. 75 meters from the fulcrum of a lever
An object is placed 1.75 meters from the fulcrum of a lever. The effort force is 0.50 meters from the fulcrum. What is the actual mechanical advantage if the lever is 95% efficient? .271 .286 .301 3.33 3.50 3.68 Answer Now 10

20% 31% 69% 80% 87% 96% Answer Now 10

Participant Scores 56 Jacob Mackenzie 51 Nicole F. Joey Daniel

A certain ramp is 10 meters long and is 50% efficient
A certain ramp is 10 meters long and is 50% efficient. It requires 25 N of force to push a 50 N crate up the ramp. How tall is the ramp? 1.0 m 2.0 m 2.5 m 3.5 m 4.0 m 5.0 m 22
Participant 1 Participant 2 Participant 3 Participant 4 Participant 5 Participant 6 Participant 7 Participant 8 Participant 9 Participant 10

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