I thought it might make a nice diversion to talk about how things we take fro granted work.
A short list of basic machinery are;
the wheel,
the lever,
the inclined plane
the pulley
the ??
More complex machines include things like gears, but they are just variants on levers where a gear ratio is similar to lever lengths.
I might be interesting to inspect the science behind some simple machines.
#1-
The simplest I can think of, and I haven't even seen one in years is the old "church key" aka beer can opener.
The key to the key is leverage... a force amplification occurs thanks to the leverage, or relative lever length of handle vs piercing end , or opening hook. The cap opener end reminds me a little of an auto-former since the two levers extend from the same fulcrum point, while the piercing end has a proper long and short lever distance. The piercing tip is perhaps a variant inclined plane, some form of force multiplication occurs due to to the concentration of force on the small tip end.
additional simple machines to inspect;
#2- can opener: My old cheap one recently finally wore out after several decades. I doubt the new one will last as long but i paid around $1 for it. Gears, levers, piercing knife edge, etc.
#3- wheelbarrow: besides the interesting name there are some interesting things going on with center of mass when you tilt up the handles, etc. These are designs hundreds of years old, that persisted because they work.
#4- dough hook? Like how does that work?
#5- don't make me do all the work. we are surrounded by simple machines that make our life easier. (Hint tuning lugs are an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. )
(fill in all the empty space_)
JR
A short list of basic machinery are;
the wheel,
the lever,
the inclined plane
the pulley
the ??
More complex machines include things like gears, but they are just variants on levers where a gear ratio is similar to lever lengths.
I might be interesting to inspect the science behind some simple machines.
#1-
The simplest I can think of, and I haven't even seen one in years is the old "church key" aka beer can opener.
The key to the key is leverage... a force amplification occurs thanks to the leverage, or relative lever length of handle vs piercing end , or opening hook. The cap opener end reminds me a little of an auto-former since the two levers extend from the same fulcrum point, while the piercing end has a proper long and short lever distance. The piercing tip is perhaps a variant inclined plane, some form of force multiplication occurs due to to the concentration of force on the small tip end.
additional simple machines to inspect;
#2- can opener: My old cheap one recently finally wore out after several decades. I doubt the new one will last as long but i paid around $1 for it. Gears, levers, piercing knife edge, etc.
#3- wheelbarrow: besides the interesting name there are some interesting things going on with center of mass when you tilt up the handles, etc. These are designs hundreds of years old, that persisted because they work.
#4- dough hook? Like how does that work?
#5- don't make me do all the work. we are surrounded by simple machines that make our life easier. (Hint tuning lugs are an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. )
(fill in all the empty space_)
JR
