Grandpa Fenn's Workshop
The Lever Lab
A plank and a pivot. With these two things Grandpa lifted the whole back end of his truck.
Grandpa Fenn's Workshop
A plank and a pivot. With these two things Grandpa lifted the whole back end of his truck.
Pick a weight. Tap a spot on the plank to put it there. Tap a weight on the plank to take it off. Slide the pivot to move the balance point.
Start with one crate on each side.
Grandpa nods. You just did what a lever does best.
Every crate pushes the plank down. A crate far from the pivot pushes harder than the same crate close to it.
The push is the weight times the distance. Put a small weight far out and it can match a big weight close in.
That is the secret of a lever. You give up distance and you gain strength.
Toby counts the spacesA weight pushes harder the farther it sits from the pivot.
A plank balances when the push on the left matches the push on the right.
A long reach lets a small weight lift a big one.
Big word for the day. Lever. A stiff bar that turns around a pivot.