This website was constructed to give my fifth grade students more opportunity to explore, read about and play with the concepts that are covered in our Levers and Pulleys kit.  There are specific tasks for for each of the sites that they visit.  This can be used as enrichment, review or extra credit.
S. McKenna ~ Revised January, 2002

Visit each of these websites that relate to Levers and Pulleys.
Complete the tasks listed with each site.
Check the tasks that you have completed on your record sheet.

  Brain Pop: Levers BrainPop movies require Flash Plug-In and can be viewed no more than three times on a given computer in a single day.

  • View the movie at Brain Pop.com.  You may want to watch it several times.
  • Take the quiz (Please note that there seems to be an error in the question about Class Two Levers.  Can you tell how it should have been written?)
  • Complete the worksheets that Mrs. McK has for you.
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    You can also learn more about levers and pulleys at Doc Atom's Lab.This site requires Flash Plug-In

      Simple Machines Made Simpler Very nice explanations.  Music plays in the background--turn volume down.

  • Read about the different types of simple machines--event the ones that we do not cover in this unit.  The connections to what you learned in the kit Simple Machines will help you understand the principles of how they work.
  • Take the quiz--record you score out of 100% for ten questions
  • Draw two or three pictures of tool that is a lever in action--the kind of sequence pictures that could create a flip chart.  These pictures can also be used to make an animated graphic! You could be a graphic animator!
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    Make This Rube Goldberg Machine Work This site requires Flash Plug-In

  • This is a clever contraption that uses Levers and Pulleys to make a clown dance
  • You can change the settings of the length of the arm, the height of the inclined plane, the position of the fulcrum and the number of pulleys in each of the stages of this contraption.
  • Take notes about how you changed the settings and the effect using the recording sheet
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    The Rube Goldberg Website has this Picture-Snapping Machine, and other intriguing mechanisms.

    How Things Work
     

    Read How a Block and Tackle Works and then answer the following questions.
    1.  a.  When you add one pulley to lift the 100 lb. load, what has changed: the amount of effort or the direction of the effort?
        b.  Therefore, what is the advantage with a single-pulley system?

    2.  The second diagram shows a double-pulley system comprised of single-movable, single-fixed pulleys (we label it this way because the rope passes through the movable pulley before the fixed one).
        a.  Describe what happens with this pulley system.
        b.  What is the advantage of this pulley?
        c.  What is the trade-off?

    3.  If you add more pulleys to a system, what effect will it have on:
        a.  the amount of effort required?
        b.  the force-distance trade-off?
        c.  the effect of friction?
    How Stuff Works--More Information

    Read Other Force and Distance Trade Offs. (this may help with question 3 above)
    Inventors Toolbox
    Read about levers and pulleys from this site and answer the following questions.
    1.  List the different types of simple machines.

    2.  What is the advantage from a single pulley system?

    3.  What is the advantage from a double pulley system?

    4.  What is the trade-off from a double pulley system?

    5.  Describe a lever system.

    6.  What is the advantage using levers?  How can it be different?
    Simple Machines

    Read about levers and pulleys from this site and answer the following questions.
    1.  What accomplishment is credited to Archimedes?  What is a famous quote that he made?

    2.  Describe a lever according to this site.

    3.  Describe a pulley.

    4.  How does a movable pulley reduce the amount of effort needed to lift a load?

    5.  What is an example of a way in which pulleys may have been used in ancient times?

    Check out these sites for more information about levers and pulleys.
    Pulleys in action
    An interactive applet where you can experiment with the effect of 2, 4, or 6 pulley systems on the amount of force required.
    Scholastic site on Simple Machines

    1Machines
    This site (designed for an eighth grade science class) has many sections on each type of simple machine.  There are also photographed samples that are animated when you put the mouse on top of the pictures.  Check out the levers and pulleys sections for another look at how these machines work. The introduction is a humorous look at how simple machines might have been invented!
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