Series · 3 episodes · 1:22
Inventions that changed the world
The ideas behind machines, from the oldest simple tool to the press that spread books across Europe.
Play from episode 1- 1
0:28The law of the lever
How 100 N can lift a 400 N load, and why a lever trades force for distance instead of creating energy.
- 2
0:26Leonardo’s aerial screw
Leonardo da Vinci’s 1480s design for a machine that would screw itself into the air, and why it could never fly.
- 3
0:28How the printing press changed books
From hand-copied manuscripts to Gutenberg’s reusable metal type: how one invention made books cheaper and spread them across Europe.