Intro Notes to Unit D

1. UNIT D: MECHANICAL
SYSTEMS
Mr. Ilko

2. Where are Mechanical Systems
Taking Us?
 There have been remarkable improvements to
our ways of life primarily due to Mechanical
Systems
 Some of the ways it has improved our lives
are;
 Vehicleengines
 Medicine
 Resource gathering
 These are but a few of the contributions that
this Unit will explore

3. The Canadarm & Robonaut
 One of the greatest contributions Canada has
made to the International Space Station was
made possible by mechanical systems
 The Canadarm is a combination of several
simple machines to create one complex one
 Robo-naut is the first robot astronaut that
combines many different simple machines to
create a human-like robot

6. Simple Machines
 The first machines were very simple devices,
but each helped perform a task that made our
lives even easier
 The first machines were all very different in
design, but all had one common thing
 They required humans as their source for energy

8. Listing Some Historic Tasks

9. Meeting the Same Need in
Different Ways
 We use machines to perform tasks for us, we
even use different machines to perform the
same task,
 For example, in order to get water you just turn
on your tap. You use a variety of systems to
perform that.
 In the past it wasn’t so easy…

10. Cont…
 People commonly used a water wheel or
SAKIA to gather their water.
 This was a device that had buckets attached to a
rotating wheel that turned when animals rotated
another connected wheel

13. The Past Still Alive
 The ARCHIMEDES SCREW was created by
Archimedes to more efficiently lift water from
its source for people to drink and use
 Leonardo Da Vinci used two of these screws
to raise water up to a storage tank
 Farmers use a modern day version of the
Archimedes screw in their machines to move
grain into trucks for transport

16. Simple Machines
 There are 6 main simple machines that you
must learn in this unit, and they are;
 Lever,
 Incline plane
 Wedge
 Screw
 Pulley
 Wheel and Axel
 Each have their own advantages and
disadvantages

18. Lever
 Is a rigid bar or plank that can rotate around a
pivot or fulcrum
 Levers are used to reduce the force needed to
carry out tasks like pulling nails or opening
bottles
 It can move larger loads than you could
without using it

20. Three Types of Levers
 First Class Lever – Have the fulcrum between
the load and the point where the effort is being
exerted
 Second Class Lever – has the load between
effort and the fulcrum
 Third Class Lever – has the effort between the
load and the fulcrum

21. First Class

22. Second Class

23. Third Class

24. Incline Plane
 Commonly known as a ramp
 Makes lifting a heavy load easier since the force is
being exerted over a longer area rather than
straight up
 The steeper the incline the more force that is
required to move the load
 Ex. Loading ramps & wheel chair access ramps

26. Wedge
 Similar in shape to an incline plane, but used to
be forced into an object rather than lift one
 By applying pressure to the wide end of the
wedge, you exert the force on the narrow end to
split an object apart
 Can only be used to split objects
 Ex. Knives and Axes

28. Screw
 A cylinder with spiral grooves on the outside
 Helps to increase the force your use, you can
use very little force to drive a screw into an
object
 Or can rotate it to create linear motion (motion
in straight lines)
 Screws, Archimedes screw

30. Pulley
 Consists of wire, rope or cable moving on a
grooved wheel
 Can be made up of one or many wheels, and can
be fixed or movable
 Are commonly linked together to move and lift
objects you normally could not lift
 Ex. Cranes and elevators

32. Wheel and Axel
 Combination of two different wheels of different
diameters that turn together
 A longer motion on the wheel create a shorter but
more powerful motion on the axel
 larger = wheel, Shorter = Axel
 You must turn a greater distance to apply a force
 Ex. Steering wheel and column in a car & a door
knob