Lever a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth with it' is a remark of Archimedes who formally stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria). It is assumed that in ancient Egypt, constructors used the lever to move and uplift obelisks weighing more than 100 tons. A lever is a beam connected to ground by a hinge, or pivot, called a fulcrum. The ideal lever does not dissipate or store energy, which means there is no friction in the hinge or bending in the beam. In this case, the power into the lever equals
Lever a fixed point. The lever operates by applying forces at different distances from the fulcrum, or a pivot. Assuming the lever does not dissipate or store energy, the power into the lever must equal the power out of the lever. As the lever rotates around the fulcrum, points farther from this pivot move faster than points closer to the pivot. Therefore, a force applied to a point farther from the pivot must be less than the force located at a point closer in, because power is the product of force and velocity. If "a" and "b" are distances from the