Lever Fever

Grade 4 is exploring simple machines. This week we looked at how a first class lever can change both the size and direction of a force. 

 Besides commenting on the fact that our levers were hard to balance, they did find out that they could balance the lever if the sum or products of the masses were the same. Above you can see 7 balances with 3+4 and below you can see that 3x7 balances 7x3. 

 We just started testing moving the fulcrum to lift heavier masses. We talked about Archimedes who lived over 2000 years ago and said, "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I shall move the Earth."

http://quoteimg.com/archimedes-lever/

Students should be looking around for levers in their homes this week.