"Morning, class," Amaya greeted her students with the usual nod and a punch of her fist into her palm to show that she was really raring to go, "tomorrow starts up December, which means two things: time to start preparing yourself to fight off some odd holiday-themed nonsense just about nearly every other day, and the end of the semester, and the end of the semester means final projects.
"We've used a lot of different machines here in this class, and now we're going to work on making some of our own. There's something real satisfying about getting an idea about something, figuring out how it works, then putting it all together and making it
do something. But before we get to that, we're going to take today's lesson to really understand machines on a simple, fundamental level, though the six kinds of
simple machines that'll help make more complex ones along the line.
"Now, a machine is basically just a mechanical structure that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an intended action, and a
simple machine is what you use to change or direct that force and movement, a.k.a. all the little moving parts that make up the big moving machine."
And here, Amaya lifted up the examples of each simple machine that she had on the worktable in front of her as she went through them. "You've got your
levers,
wheel and axle,
pulley,
inclined plane,
wedge, and
screw. Basic stuff you see every day, but the key to making machines is understanding how to do them
right and understanding how to put them all together effetively.
"Which is pretty much what we'll be working on today. You've got full run of the whole shop and the materials available to you to try things and experiment and really get to understand these simple machines and how they work...especially together. If you have questions, of course, I'm here, but I really want you all to just try thing out and really use the class period to get a little creative with these basic elements. See how they work together in combination; find out what works and what doesn't. Try to see if you can put together a way to make all the elements work together in one machine by the end of class. Find out if some materials work better than others. Find out what the limits for pressure and force might be for this machine or that one. And keep all these things in mind for next week, when we'll expand on these concepts a little further.
"Sound good? Good! Remember: safety equipment when needed, don't hesitate to ask questions if you got 'em, and let's get to work!"
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