lever, simple machine used to amplify physical force. All early people used the lever in some form, for moving heavy stones or as digging sticks for land cultivation. The principle of the lever was used in the swape, or shaduf, a long lever pivoted near one end with a platform or water container hanging from the short arm and counterweights attached to the long arm. A man could lift several times his own weight by pulling down on the long arm. This device is said to have been used in Egypt and India for raising water and lifting soldiers over battlements as early as 1500 bc.
Another interesting lever device, probably used in Egypt about 5000 bc, was a balance beam for weighing, consisting of a bar pivoted at its centre and weights that were hung on one end to balance the object being weighed on the other end.
The shows how a lever, for example, a crowbar that is supported and can turn freely on the fulcrum f, enables a man to create at b a force P that is greater than the force F that he exerts at a. If, for example, the length af is five times bf, the force P is five times F. In the nutcracker, shown at the right, the two bars are connected by a pin joint at the fulcrum f; if af is three times bf, the force P at b is three times the force F exerted by the hands at a.