Simple Machines Corwin: Personally, I'm rather fond of scissors... very good for cutting purposes. Hammers are good too... an even simpler lever with a dead weight attached... and no moving parts. calybonos: How 'bout dem gears? Two or more working together form a transmission which creates a gear ratio and therefore are a simple machine,analogous to the wheels of a pulley. They can transform output speed into increased torque,or reduce torque in exchange for greater speed. They can also adjust the direction of rotation. A gear can also mesh with a non-rotating toothed part (rack) to produce translation. . Corwin: Did you know that a Canadian team is designing a jet-engine with no moving parts? I can't even imagine how that would work. Pretty neat stuff. Serabi: Leonardo da Vinci is popularly, but erroneously, credited with inventing modern scissors. A scissor-like tool made of a single piece of metal was in use in ancient Egypt around 1500 BC. There is evidence of modern cross-blade scissors with a pivot being used in Rome some 1600 years later. Quite simply, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent scissors. He was born long after examples of Roman scissors were found. So, whilst da Vinci was a brilliant man with a mind generations ahead of his time, he cannot be correctly credited with inventing scissors. No doubt, however, he perfected the pivot action. Corwin: He also abused his cats... this is well documented. Although I have very high regard to DaVinci's many accomplishments... he did abuse his cats... which is why I blocked and reported him on Facebook. Besides... seventeenth century geniuses have no business creating profiles on modern internet networking sites. StuckInTheSixties: Note: The post two posts above this post was taken verbatim from wikianswers.com. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Leonardo_da_Vinci_invent_scissors (I'm sure this must have been a mere oversight.) Serabi: Yes, Leonardo's piece about the scissors was taken from Wikipedia, copied and pasted about 7 months ago when I was preparing one liners and snippets for my students. Under facts and fallacies I found a line stating that Leonardo invented the scissors. I Googled it and saw that he was not the inventor, but worked on it and perfected the pivot action. I'll take it off if you want me to. I just thought is was an interesting topic and was waiting for more comments going further back in time. (It was not an oversight - I knew exactly what I was doing. If I had to rephrase it, I'm sure I could not have done it better.) Geoff: My favourite simple machine is the axe. Which also combines leverage and a wedge. It is also useful in a multitude of situations, up to and including zombie apocalypses. Wait, what is the plural of apocalypse? Can you have a plural of apocalypse? StuckInTheSixties: The axe is essentially a singular, more brutally applied scissor. I'm partial to the screw, myself, which is essentially a revolving incline plane. Aura: Papaer clip I guess it works with tension...also useful in so many ways and never really been improved upon since it's invention. Corwin: Did you know that the paper clip was invented before actual paper? For centuries they were used merely for shooting at each other using rubber bands. Many an eye was lost until eventually Victor VonPulpmier invented paper, and the darn things got put to proper use. Geoff: The paper clip was the Norwegian symbol of resistance against the Nazis. The original inventor lost the patent due to destitution and then death. Which was pretty unfortunate. | Science Chat Room 3 People Chatting Similar Conversations |