Unit Summary

Questions

Summary

1. What are simple machines, and how do they make work easier?

1.1 What advantage do you get from using a lever?

1.2 How do wheels and rollers help move things from place to place?

1.3 What role do wheel and axle systems have in moving vehicles and devices?

• Simple machines provide mechanical advantages.
  
  
• Levers are meant to move loads, and they do so with a force advantage or a speed advantage.
  
  
• Levers can be combined to make complex levers and machines.
  
  
• Wheels and rollers reduce friction, making it easier to move objects and devices.
  
  
• A wheel and axle allows force to be transferred from one to the other.
  
  
• A pulley is a wheel and axle made to support a cable or belt.
  
  
• Chains and gears transfer motion from one axle to another.
  
  
• Special gears allow motion to be transferred in various directions and angles.
  
  
• Simple machines can be combined into systems.
  

2.How can I build machines to move the way I want them to move?

2.1 How can force be used to move a vehicle.

2.2 How can I build a device or vehicle that moves on its own?

2.3 What is needed to design a safe vehicle?

2.4 How can ideas be shared and designs be compared to produce the best moving device possible?

• Force is needed to move a device or vehicle.
  
  
• Many kinds of forces provide the pushes or pulls needed to move devices and vehicles.
  
  
• To move on its own, a vehicle or device needs a stored form of energy.
  
  
• Control systems allow devices and vehicles to move safely.
  
  
• Steering and braking are important control systems.
  
  
• To design the best device or vehicle, a design process should be followed.
  
  
• More than one person working as a team allows for ideas to be shared in the design process.