Give me a place to stand

Posted by Gary Martin on November 10, 2006

In Reply to: Give me a place to stand posted by lewis on November 10, 2006

: what is the meanning of archimedes quote "Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.

That's to do with the action of levers. The force exerted by a lever is proportional to the ratio of the lengths either side of the pivot. So, to exert an indefinately large force one needs an indefinately long lever - and a place to stand to push on the end of it.