In Year 6 this week we have started our Design and Technology unit for this term. In this unit on ‘Mechanisms’, we have started by learning about levers and fulcrums. We learned that Archimedes discovered this concept that we can adjust how much weight we can lift by pivoting on a fulcrum. We learned how changing the distance of the ‘effort arm’ from the fulcrum can make a big difference to the weight we can lift.
During the lesson, we talked about the examples of levers we can see in our everyday lives; seesaws, nutcrackers, hammers, bottle opener and balancing scales. Using a fulcrum doesn’t make the item lighter, it just changes how we can apply pressure to lift the weight. Maybe you can have a go at home building your own lever systems. Send some photos if you make anything!
