How Inclined Planes, Wedges & Screws Work

Inclined Plane

An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six classical simple machines defined by Renaissance scientists. Inclined planes are used to move heavy loads over vertical obstacles.

Examples vary from a ramp used to load goods into a truck, to a person walking up a pedestrian ramp, to an automobile or railroad train climbing a grade.

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Source: Wikipedia · Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Museum entries, images, and facts are drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, used under public-domain and Creative Commons licenses.