|| home ||| units ||||| help

Thinking About The Question

How can simple tools called simple machines decrease the amount of force you need to move objects?

Before engines and motors were invented, people had to do things like lifting heavy loads by hand. Using an animal could help, but what they really needed were some clever ways to either make work easier or faster. Ancient people invented, simple machines that would help them overcome forces and allow them to do the desired work against those forces.

The ancient Egyptians, for example, used such inventions to help them build the pyramids. They used levers to pick up large blocks of stone. They put those blocks on rollers to move from one area to another. Then they used ramps to move the blocks up to the top of the pyramid they were building. The ancient Romans used catapults to throw stones at their enemies. The catapult was a large lever. They used a pulley to pull down the arm of the catapult. The device was set on wheels, an advanced version of rollers, to move it from place to place.

We still use simple machines today.