Making Work Easier (1963)

[Applause] today david has come with mr. Anderson to watch men work on a housing development mr. Anderson designed all these houses and David and his family will live in one of them when they're finished David can't help wondering how so few men can build something as big and complicated as a house in such a short time for example how can this one workman get all those bricks up to the men working on the scaffolding surely he isn't going to lift that wheelbarrow loaded with bricks straight up in the air there's the answer a ramp made of long planks the workman rolls the wheelbarrow up the ramp to get the bricks up this short distance the man must push the wheelbarrow along the ramp a very long distance but the work is easier scientists call anything that makes work easier a machine so this ramp is really a machine it is called an inclined plane there are other kinds of inclined planes that help make work easier this drill bit is an inclined plane but with a slight difference instead of being in a straight line like the ramp this inclined plane twists around and around as you turn the bit it's clear that your finger is really traveling up and down an inclined plane this giant drill makes it easier for men to dig a hole in the ground just as the smaller drill made it easier for the carpenter to put a hole in the wood it too is a twisted inclined plane spyro inclined plans are called screws you couldn't push this screw into the board with your hand yet with the help of a screwdriver it can be done quite easily this is still another type of inclined plane although at first it may not look like it but if you look at the shape of the axe you can actually see the inclined plane this type of machine is called a wedge wedges make it easy to divide things that's really what an axe does it splits the wood if you look around you can see many other wedges being used this ground stake is an example a knife is another type of wedge that makes work easier with a knife the wood can easily be whittled the tip of a nail is a wedge - it forces the wood apart so the rest of the nail can be driven through the board's fastening them together what began as a series of drawings made by the architect is rapidly becoming a row of real houses the workmen use all kinds of machines to help them do their work more easily and more quickly this workman is using a machine called a lever the board helps him move a heavy piece of sewer pipe he uses a stone as a fulcrum and pushes down on one end of the board the other end comes up and moves the cement pipe in order to move the heavy sewer pipe a little notice how far the workman has to push the lever down but notice - how easy it is [Music] a bottle opener is a machine it's a lever that makes it possible to remove the cap from the bottle quite easily here's another job that needs the help of a machine how is this man going to get this heavy cement to the scaffolding where the other men are working maybe he'll use an inclined plane no the ramp has been removed instead of a ramp the workman pulls down on a rope and the bucket goes up but why David sees the pulley turning a pulley must be another kind of machine since it makes the work of lifting easier and it is the man pulls down again on the road in order to lift the cement up the rope is pulled down the pulley changes the direction in which the rope moves and it is easier to pull down on a rope than to push up a heavy bucket of cement but when the load is very very heavy you need a more complex machine these complicated machines are really combinations of simple machines a shovel like this has many pulleys and each one of them helps to make the job a little easier [Music] [Music] [Music] there are other machines that work here too [Music] a wheel and its axle is a machine trucks and tractors move on wheels [Music] imagine trying to move this tractor if it didn't have wheels and had to be dragged along the ground wheels make work easier there are other wheels here too to help with the turning jobs the wheel shaped handle of the water faucet makes it easy to turn on and off a doorknob is really a wheel and axle - you couldn't easily turn the small axle that opens the latch without the help of the larger wheel fastened to it if you look around you'll find all kinds of machines being used to make work easier simple machines like the wheel on this wheelbarrow or this ladder which when placed this way is an inclined plane there are wedges like the elves there are levers like the claw of this hammer there are screws used to fasten things together or to drill a hole and there are pulleys all these simple machines used alone or combined and more complex machines make it possible for us to get more work done each day than we could ever get done without their help machines make our work easier