"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world," declared the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes. He wasn’t exaggerating – he was revealing one of the most powerful ideas in science. Long before modern machines were invented, people used levers to lift stones, move logs, and build temples and pyramids. A lever is a simple tool, but it can do remarkable things – it lets you use a small force to move a large weight, just by changing how and where you apply that force.

In this activity, you’ll explore how levers work and discover for yourself how changing the position of the fulcrum, load, and effort can make lifting easier – just as Archimedes described thousands of years ago.