Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Levers

Today me and Andelle were helping at Pops and GangGang's today, and I was sweeping around the pool, which gave me an idea of what I shall post about today. I shall now enlighten (or bore in some cases) with the one thing I learned about in GTT: Levers. Now if you already knew this stuff, I suggest leaving before I embarrass myself. There are three classes of levers. The way you tell the difference is by where the fulcrum, input, and output is.

  • First class. The fulcrum is in between the input and output. Examples are seesaws, scissors, and crowbars.
  • Second class. The output is in between the fulcrum and the input. Examples are a wheelbarrow, a nutcracker, and a wrench.
  • Third class. The input is in between the fulcrum and the output. Examples are an arm lifting weights, a stapler, and (the thing that gave me this idea) a broom. I found when the input (my arm) was lower on the broom, there was more force sweeping the leaves. But when my hands were higher up on the broom, the more distance the broom moved.


Now I know there's a whole thing on on resistance and effort, but I've quite forgotten it. It's best I just write all I know down so I won't forget it next year.

4 comments:

Innes said...

was there some connection to sweeping (hands on the broom acting as a fulcrum???) that made you think of this?

Haven said...

yep. I don't just randomly talk about levers unless I'm with my friends

Gordon said...

I think Aunt Innes was giving a hint that she expects more sweeping from Hallie/Isa. What a tactful mother she is.

Haven said...

What?