Photograph Wedges Shana, Bailey, Kelly S. and Derek A wedge is used for cutting, splitting, or piercing things. A wedge is wide at the top and smaller at the bottom. A wedge is used for splitting wood. A wedge is also useful for keeping wagons or carts from rolling if you place the wedge either in front of or in back of the wheel. Trevor An inclined plane is like a ramp or anything slanted.
Screws are inclined planes in a spiral.
Miners used inclined planes for ramps to pull wagons up over rough ground. Other simple machines, like pulleys, can help pull wagons up a ramp. Screws are helpful to gold miners because they held things like rocker boxes, sluice boxes, and wagons together. Sometimes machines with screw shaped diggers, called augers, are used to break up the ground. Photographs Gears Corine, John and Beth Gears are wheels with teeth.