The mighty mathematics of the lever - Andy Peterson and Zack Patterson
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-mighty-mathematics-of-the-lever-andy-peterson-and-zack-patterson Archimedes once said “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth.”...
==========
A famous Ancient Greek once said, "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth." But this wasn't some wizard claiming to perform impossible feats. It was the mathematician Archimedes describing the fundamental principle behind the lever. The idea of a person moving such a huge mass on their own might sound like magic, but chances are you've seen it in your everyday life. One of the best examples is something you might recognize from a childhood playground: a teeter-totter, or seesaw. Let's say you and a friend decide to hop on. If you both weigh about the same, you can totter back and forth pretty easily. But what happens if your friend weighs more? Suddenly, you're stuck up in the air. Fortunately, you probabl...
==========
A famous Ancient Greek once said, "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth." But this wasn't some wizard claiming to perform impossible feats. It was the mathematician Archimedes describing the fundamental principle behind the lever. The idea of a person moving such a huge mass on their own might sound like magic, but chances are you've seen it in your everyday life. One of the best examples is something you might recognize from a childhood playground: a teeter-totter, or seesaw. Let's say you and a friend decide to hop on. If you both weigh about the same, you can totter back and forth pretty easily. But what happens if your friend weighs more? Suddenly, you're stuck up in the air. Fortunately, you probabl...
