The digging stick is a wooden stick that is used to dig food out of the soil (vegetable or animal). Dating back over 170,000 years, it is one of the earliest forms of the lever. A lever is a rigid beam/rod which is rotated about a point or fulcrum.
2. Plow
Answer: Lever
Dating back several thousand years, a plow is used to push through soil that is to be planted. It turns over the soil and brings nutrients to the surface. It is believed to be an adaptation of a digging stick. The plow, like other levers, amplifies the force exerted.
3. Potter's lathe
Answer: Wheel and axle
The potter's lathe is more commonly called the potter's wheel, but that would make the answer too simple. The spinning of the wheel allows one to mold and shape pottery.The earliest potter's wheel may date from as early as 3500 BCE. The larger wheel is connected to a smaller axle causing the two to spin together.
4. Wagon
Answer: Wheel and axle
The wagon seems to have appeared in many places in antiquity. In Mesopotamia, it may have appeared over 5,500 years ago. The wagon can transport more goods than a person can pick up and carry. The advantage this brings is only partly negated by friction.
5. Block and tackle
Answer: Pulley
A block and tackle is a set of independent pulleys that nonetheless work together to multiply their effort. Written and visual evidence of this can be traced back thousands of years. The pulley is a wheel mounted on a post on which is a belt that multiplies the effort expended.
6. Sailing block
Answer: Pulley
A sailing block features one or more pulleys. A rope runs through the system transmitting the force. With pulleys, friction is one of the key forces for which to account. Depending on how it's used, the pulley multiplies the force used or changes its direction.
7. Ramp
Answer: Inclined plane
The ramp allows the raising of an item for less effort at the cost of greater distance. Though it was the last of the simple machines to be recognized, it has been around for thousands of years. Compared to the other machines it is a more passive device.
8. Slide
Answer: Inclined plane
The slide represents, in a way, the ramp in reverse as items move from a higher to a lower level. Used as a recreational device, the slide dates back to the early 1900s and sometimes includes side walls for safety purposes. A slide, like any other inclined plane, has a slope which represents the ratio between distance travelled and elevation difference.
9. Hand axe
Answer: Wedge
A hand axe originally dates back to the Paleolithic. It is a triangular shaped tool that parts of the same object or two separate objects apart. A wedge acts somewhat like a portable inclined plane.
10. Knife
Answer: Wedge
A knife is used to cut or divide an object. The blade of the knife acts as a particularly flattened wedge. A blade divides a solid piece of material better than attempting to crush the same object.
11. Machine press
Answer: Screw
The machine press is also known as the screw press. The machine was a step up over a hammer swinging to shape relatively small pieces of metal. By the mid-1800s, steam power began replacing human power. The early printing presses were adaptations of screw presses. You can spin or screw the "press" in place before pressing it down.
12. Wine key
Answer: Screw
The wine key is adapted from a cork screw which removes the cork from a bottle of wine. It is an adaptation of the helix or corkscrew shape. By comparison to some of the other tools, it only dates back to the 1800s. Again the tool is spun or "screwed" into something (such as a cork) to grab hold and pull it out.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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