Essay Database

Many simple machines have been created even since the early times. According to Ron Kurtus from his website article, "Simple Machines", the ancient Egyptians used levers to lift stones to build their pyramids and ramps to raise them to the top. Also he states that in Roman times, stones were tossed at enemies using catapults. The catapults used levers to fling the stones, and pulleys to pull down the arm of the catapult. The purpose …

…author David Macaulay says that several thousand years ago Archimedes invented a compounded pulley which could pull a ship to shore. Even to break a large bolder into smaller rocks would be nearly impossible without the inclined plane to lighten the force you must apply. When it all comes down to it, without simple machines today's world would be much less complex. We might still be trying to invent simple clocks instead of complicated computers!