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Crane Operator
Operates cranes to lift and move heavy materials on construction sites, ports, and industrial facilities.
Did you know?
The Taisun crane in China set a record in 2008 by lifting 20,133 tonnes, and the newer Honghai crane can lift 22,000 tonnes.
How subjects help
- Mathematics: Read load charts to check that a lift's weight and reach are within the crane's limits.
- Physics: Stop a heavy load swinging by moving it smoothly and allowing for the wind.
- Engineering: Check cables, brakes and hooks every day before any lift begins.
Try it yourself: Lift a load with a ruler lever
- Tape the 5 coins into a stack and put it on one end of the ruler. This is your load.
- Put the pencil under the ruler near the middle. The pencil is the pivot, called the fulcrum.
- Press down on the other end with one finger and feel how hard you have to push to lift the load.
- Move the pencil closer to the coins, then further away, and press each time. Where was lifting easiest, and where hardest?
Crane arms, digger buckets and many farm and mining machines are levers, and operators and engineers work out where the pivot and the weight go so a machine can lift safely.
Adapted from NOVA (PBS): Lever Loads.
Also try: Make a broom-handle pulley.
Known for it in
UAE, USA, Germany, Australia, Singapore