To complete our learning about Forces and Mechanisms, today we learned about levers and their mechanical advantage. A ‘mechanical advantage’ is a measurement of how much a machine multiplies a force, so a smaller force can have a greater effect. Therefore, using a lever helps us lift heavier loads with a smaller amount of effort.

We also got to grips with some scientific vocabulary such as; fulcrum, load, effort, newton, lever and pivot.

This was a great lesson as we really got to put our maths skills to the test when multiplying the length of the lever towards the load from the fulcrum, but dividing the length of the lever towards the effort from the fulcrum, phew, tricky stuff!

We worked out some calculations first so we could really understand how the mechanical advantage works. Then we drew some scientific conclusions that the further away the effort is from the fulcrum, the smaller the effort needed to lift the load. This was brilliant as we have really been working hard on creating scientific conclusions this week.

Finally, we made some models of levers and practiced for ourselves how the distance of the effort and load from the fulrum really affects how easy or hard it is to lift a heavy object.

Amazing reflective thinking today Year 5, well done!