An ant is tiny, but it can lift more than 20 times its own weight. One elephant can carry more than a thousand pounds, and a team of two horses can pull more than a ton.
These animals are much stronger than most of us humans. But we have an advantage. Thanks to ancient problem-solvers, we have machines, which increase the force we can apply and allow us to do things we could not do on our own. Many of the objects we use every day are actually combinations of six simple machines. Developed thousands of years ago, these machines have few or no moving parts but are central to life as we know it.
