Pulley

Pulley: This simple machine is made up of a wheel and a rope.  The rope fits on the groove of the wheel.  One part of the rope is attached to the load.  When you pull on one side of the pulley, the wheel turns and the load will move.  Pulleys let you move loads up, down, or sideways.  Pulleys are good for moving objects to hard to reach places.  It also makes the work of moving heavy loads a lot easier.  There are two types of pulleys: Fixed Pulleys do not make work easier, they simply change the direction of the applied force; Movable Pulleys make work much easier.
 

Some examples of pulleys are:

•  flag poles
•  clothes lines
•  blinds
•  crane
•  Can you think of any other examples?  Post your answers here.
•  Try the pulley experiment on the Experiments page.