An Introduction to Inclined Planes
Students are introduced to the concept of simple tools and how they can make difficult or impossible tasks easier. They begin by investigating the properties of inclined planes and how implementing them can reduce the force necessary to lift objects off the ground.
A road is an example of inclined plane.Copyright 1869 J. Dorman Steele, Fourteen Weeks in Natural Philosophy, New York, A. S. Barnes, pp 93-94.
Engineers are continually looking for and designing new tools to make life easier. Students are introduced to this idea by exploring tools that they know and see everyday, in particular the inclined plane. Then they use these ideas to identify tasks in their own lives that they would like to make easier and design tools to help them accomplish this.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Identify inclined planes as a type of simple machine.
- Identify at least one way in which simple machines make a specific task easier to accomplish.
- Explain that the purpose of simple machines and tools is to make a specific type of work or task easier to do.