Between Floors

Ride inside a cutaway lift and find out what really holds it up, moves it and stops it: a counterweight, ropes that grip a wheel they are not tied to, wheels that travel with the car, a latch on every landing door, a brake held open by electricity, and what catches a car whose ropes have all gone. Eight investigations for ages 12 and up.
Library
Course cover

Heavy and Light

Lesson 1
An Empty Lift Is Still Heavy image

An Empty Lift Is Still Heavy

An empty lift climbing to the top floor can send electricity back into the building.
Start
Lesson 2
The Moment Your Knees Notice image

The Moment Your Knees Notice

The lift is moving the whole way up, but you only feel it at the beginning and the end.
Start

Rope and Wheel

Lesson 3
The Rope That Is Not Tied On image

The Rope That Is Not Tied On

Six steel ropes lie over a turning wheel with no knot holding them to it.
Start
Lesson 4
A Wheel That Travels With the Car image

A Wheel That Travels With the Car

Some of the lift’s wheels stay in the roof; two make the whole journey with the car.
Start
Lesson 5
A Floor That Sinks a Little image

A Floor That Sinks a Little

Nobody pressed a button, and the floor still moved under your feet.
Start

Locked, Braked, Caught

Lesson 6
The Door With No Motor image

The Door With No Motor

Only the car has a door motor, yet every landing door opens the moment the car arrives.
Start
Lesson 7
Stopped Without Electricity image

Stopped Without Electricity

The motor and the controller go dead at the same moment, and the car still stops.
Start
Lesson 8
The Rope Cut on Purpose image

The Rope Cut on Purpose

An inventor stood on a platform while its only rope was cut, on purpose, in front of a crowd.
Start

Review and assessment

Lesson 9

Test: Between Floors

Review the course ideas by applying them to new situations, with kind feedback after every answer.
Locked till you take the prior lesson