Before the Industrial Age, people relied on muscle power for moving and lifting heavy objects. Here's a project that shows you how you can use your head to make heavy lifting easier on your muscles - and your back.

Simple machines allow us to do difficult tasks like lifting objects heavier than our body weight. In this science project you'll build a tabletop lever and measure how much effort it takes to lift an object by altering the length of the...

This lesson introduces students to three of the six simple machines used by many engineers: the lever, the pulley, and the wheel-and-axle. In general, engineers use the lever to magnify the force applied to an object, the pulley to lift...

Hands-on challenge to build a cardboard crane for a moon mission and see how heavy a load it can lift. Provides full list of materials with ideas on how to build, test, evaluate, and redesign it if necessary. Activity focuses on the...

This lesson introduces students to three of the six simple machines used by many engineers. These machines include the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. In general, engineers use the inclined plane to lift heavy loads, the wedge...

Investigate how levers can be used to lift objects and discover how the position of the fulcrum affects the force and the distance of the load lifted.

Design and build a hook that can be used to grab and lift canisters floating in water. Test the design and make revisions as needed.

Help lift this Obelisk monument by designing a lever to do the job as efficiently as possible.

Utilize an understanding of how a lever works to lift an obelisk, using as few of the weights and support stones as possible in this online interactive activity.

This site is an interactive applet using the principles of a pulley system. The number of pulleys can be varied as well as the load lifted