Simple Machines[edit]

Simple machines are used to make things easier like lifting a heavy box,for example.
Here are the 6 types of simple machines:
The Six Types Of Simple Machines

 Lever.
 Pulley.
 Wheel and axle.
 Screw.
 Inclined plane.
 Wedge.

A Honda F1 racecar engine.

A machine (or mechanical device) is a mechanical structure that uses power to apply forces and

control movement to perform an intended action. Machines can be driven by animals and people, by
natural forces such as wind and water, and by chemical, thermal, or electrical power, and include a
system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output
forces and movement. They can also include computers and sensors that monitor performance and
plan movement, often called mechanical systems.
Renaissance natural philosophers identified six simple machines which were the elementary devices
that put a load into motion, and calculated the ratio of output force to input force, known today
as mechanical advantage.[1]
Modern machines are complex systems that consist of structural elements, mechanisms and control
components and include interfaces for convenient use. Examples include a wide range of vehicles,
such as automobiles, boats and airplanes, appliances in the home and office, including computers,
building air handling and water handling systems, as well as farm machinery, machine
tools and factory automation systems and robots.
James Albert Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, invented in 1880 and patented in 1881

Etymology[edit]
The English word machine comes through Middle French from Latin machina,[2] which in turn derives
from the Greek (Doric μαχανά makhana, Ionic μηχανή mekhane "contrivance, machine, engine",[3] a
derivation from μῆχος mekhos "means, expedient, remedy"[4]).[5] The word mechanical (Greek:
μηχανικός) comes from the same Greek roots. A wider meaning of "fabric, structure" is found in
classical Latin, but not in Greek usage. This meaning is found in late medieval French, and is
adopted from the French into English in the mid-16th century.
In the 17th century, the word machine could also mean a scheme or plot, a meaning now expressed
by the derived machination. The modern meaning develops out of specialized application of the term
to stage engines used in theater and to military siege engines, both in the late 16th and early 17th
centuries. The OED traces the formal, modern meaning to John Harris' Lexicon Technicum (1704),
which has:
Machine, or Engine, in Mechanicks, is whatsoever hath Force sufficient either to raise or
stop the Motion of a Body. Simple Machines are commonly reckoned to be Six in Number,
viz. the Ballance, Leaver, Pulley, Wheel, Wedge, and Screw. Compound Machines, or
Engines, are innumerable.
The word engine used as a (near-) synonym both by Harris and in later language derives
ultimately (via Old French) from Latin ingenium "ingenuity, an invention".

History[edit]
 Flint hand axe found in Winchester.

The hand axe, made by chipping flint to form a wedge, in the hands of a human transforms force
and movement of the tool into a transverse splitting forces and movement of the workpiece. The
hand axe is the first example of a wedge, the oldest of the six classic simple machines, from
which most machines are based. The second oldest simple machine was the inclined
plane (ramp),[6] which has been used since prehistoric times to move heavy objects.[7][8]
The other four simple machines were invented in the ancient Near East.[9] The wheel, along with
the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th
millennium BC.[10] The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East,
where it was used in a simple balance scale,[11] and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian
technology.[12] The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the
first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC,[11] and then in ancient
Egyptian technology circa 2000 BC.[13] The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to
Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC,[14] and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth
Dynasty (1991-1802 BC).[15] The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented, [16] first
appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911-609) BC.[17] The Egyptian
pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and
the lever, to create structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza.[18]
Three of the simple machines were studied and described by Greek
philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd century BC: the lever, pulley and screw. [19][20] Archimedes
discovered the principle of mechanical advantage in the lever.[21] Later Greek philosophers
defined the classic five simple machines (excluding the inclined plane) and were able to roughly
calculate their mechanical advantage. [1] Heron of Alexandria (ca. 10–75 AD) in his
work Mechanics lists five mechanisms that can "set a load in motion"; lever, windlass, pulley,
wedge, and screw,[20] and describes their fabrication and uses.[22] However, the Greeks'
understanding was limited to statics (the balance of forces) and did not include dynamics (the
tradeoff between force and distance) or the concept of work.
The earliest practical water-powered machines, the water wheel and watermill, first appeared in
the Persian Empire, in what are now Iraq and Iran, by the early 4th century BC.[23] The earliest
practical wind-powered machines, the windmill and wind pump, first appeared in the Muslim
world during the Islamic Golden Age, in what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, by the
9th century AD.[24][25][26][27] The earliest practical steam-powered machine was a steam jack driven
by a steam turbine, described in 1551 by Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf in Ottoman Egypt.[28]
[29]

The cotton gin was invented in India by the 6th century AD,[30] and the spinning wheel was
invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century,[31] both of which were fundamental to the
growth of the cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a precursor to the spinning jenny,
which was a key development during the early Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
  The crankshaft and camshaft were invented by Al-Jazari in Northern Mesopotamia circa 1206,
[32]

 and they later became central to modern machinery such as the steam engine, internal
[33][34][35]

combustion engine and automatic controls.[36]

The earliest programmable machines were developed in the Muslim world. A music sequencer,
a programmable musical instrument, was the earliest type of programmable machine. The first
music sequencer was an automated flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described
in their Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century.[