The lever is one of the six kinds of simple machines.  Simple machines are used every day to help make moving objects easier.  A lever consists of a bar that rotates around a pivot point, which is called the fulcrum (Griffin, 2005).  There are also parts of the bar upon which you place the effort and the load.  The effort is where you push or pull to move the object; the object is the load (Gega, 1990).  Here is an example of a labeled lever:

When the load is close to the fulcrum and the effort is far away from the fulcrum, you get to use less force to move the object.  When the effort is close the fulcrum and the load is far away from the fulcrum, you have to use more force to move the object, but the object moves a farther distance faster (Griffin, 2005).  There are three classes of levers.  Each lever is different because where the fulcrum, effort, and load are placed are different for each one.

Go to these next web pages to keep on learning about the different classes of levers:

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