Suppose you have a huge rock that you need to move. The only thing around you is more rocks and some tree branches. It’s too heavy to roll or carry. What do you do? I’m sure that the students in Kumu Kala’s class can help you out. They’ve been experimenting on how to move objects using a lever. As you can see, their huge rock is a bottle of rocks, but the concept is the same.
Using a ruler, fulcrum and a spring scale, students were able to figure out how much force they would need to lift the bottle of rocks. They explained to me that the farther away the fulcrum is to the bottle of rocks, the harder it is to lift it. So….they determined that the closer they put the fulcrum to the bottle of rocks, the easier. Correct!
So if you ever need to move something ask a students in 4A to help you figure it out. Just remind them about levers.
