Easy as one-two-three
Whirr! The faster you turn the handle, the faster the eggbeater goes.
Pretty soon the eggs are a froth of golden-yellow bubbles! The eggbeater
makes the work easy—much easier and faster than if you had to stir the
eggs with a spoon.
When you mix things with an eggbeater, you are using a machine. An
eggbeater isn’t very big, it doesn’t have very many parts, and it
doesn’t run by itself. But it does something that all machines do—it
helps you do work.
Machines can be any shape and size. But when we think of machines, we
usually think of big ones that have a great many parts. The machines we
think of are made to do heavy jobs, like washing and drying clothes or
mowing lawns.
But some machines are small—even smaller and simpler than an
eggbeater. You cut out a picture or snip a string with a small
machine—a pair of scissors. You sew with a small machine—a needle.
And you tighten a screw with a very simple machine—a screwdriver. The
scissors, the needle, and the screwdriver help you the same way bigger
machines do—they make a job easier.
