Simple Machines Made Simple
I launched Computer Engineering for Babies four years ago, and the sequel for Big Babies two years ago. I get a lot of great emails from parents saying they love their books and read them every night, and sometimes their kids join in too. But occasionally I see comments like:
"Okay, I understand OR, XOR, and Multiplexing. But what does that have to do with me, a common pulley operator?"
To bridge cultural gaps, and bring us closer together as a world community, I now proudly present:
Simple Machines Made Simple is a board book starring the six simple machines in demo form.
- Wheel
- Lever
- Pulley
- Inclined plane
- Wedge
- Screw
And like previous books, you can fight with your kids over who gets to go first.
Only works if you say "Wingardium Leviosa."
How did you come up with this?
My kids were catapulting cereal from their spoons, and it hit me, not the Cheerios, but the thought, "This is fine. I'm fine. We're just learning about class 2 levers!" So before they start learning about wedges by putting an axe through the drywall, I thought we better make a book for simple machines.
Did you know a screw is just an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder?
Rated to 18,000 RPM
Who is this for?
I'm embarrassed to admit that my kids, despite half of them having completed second grade, cannot recite any of Newton's laws or calculate a simple spring constant (I promise, I'm a decent parent in other ways). And this book won't help teach any of that either. But it will give your little ones a bit of intuition for mechanical advantage, and eventually when they get their first job working at NVIDIA, they'll come home and screw their first paycheck to the refrigerator.
In all seriousness, this is for kids (and adults) who like to play, build, disassemble, launch crab apples, or just learn how things work.
Notice the track for the weight. Kids can feel the difference between going straight up, and moving up a ramp.
A triangle you jab into things. Ideally not your sibling.
But this isn't computer engineering...
I hear you saying, "We don't typically fraternize with non-ECEn folk." But hear me out. It's 2025. Our kids are going to hear about this stuff from their friends, or they can hear it from us. They're going to have a much more grounded sense of reality if we introduce the subject of mechanics in a safe environment, than if we just let them stumble upon this stuff out on their own.
Your kids will love talking about torque.
The Process
I'm happy to say, that I designed all the parts in this book. You might be thinking "Good job, Chase. You reinvented the wheel. What a challenge! /s"
Whoa, that's rude. Yeah, the wheel actually wasn't so bad. Some of the others turned out to be pretty difficult though. And of course, like software, each piece would work individually during prototyping but when they're all glued together things would fail.
In addition to all these plastic parts having to be really thin, I wanted to make sure everything was fixed to the book in some way. There are no loose pieces.
Some of the prototypes that I still have laying around are below. But know that what's pictured is only a fraction of all the iterations these designs went through.
Actually not too many iterations on the wheel.
The inclined plane was the worst by far. This is only a fraction of all the prototype prints for this mechanism. The red ramp prototype shows the original idea for how the ramp would work. There is a weight and a little follower piece that holds a spring attached underneath. The follower should move horizontally with the weight, with the spring keeping a downward force to simulate gravity. But after 40 iterations trying to get it to work within the space constraints, I pivoted to a new design.
Most of the covers look the same, but we're on version 7 with the manufacturer.
This one started as a first class lever. But the more I got into it, the more I liked the wrench.
Timeline
I'm super happy with the version of the book we have now. Besides the ramp, I have all of the injection molds ready to go. Then the book manufacturer usually takes a month to get the books finished. And then books sit on a boat for about a month on their way to the US, UK, and Netherlands.
One of my favorite parts of these projects is keeping backers in the loop with monthly updates. Like my previous Kickstarter campaigns, you'll get regular updates on the progress—celebrating the wins, troubleshooting the hiccups, and following the journey all the way until all the books have shipped.
TL;DR
- 6 simple machines
- Real working models
- Designed for kids
- Tolerated by adults
- No batteries, no lights, no explanations
- Just good, clean mechanical chaos
