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Heavy Equipment Operator
Operates bulldozers, excavators, backhoes, and other large construction and mining machinery.
Did you know?
The Bagger 288 excavator can dig 240,000 cubic metres of earth a day, like a football field dug 30 metres deep.
How subjects help
- Mathematics: Dig to the exact depth and slope marked on a site plan using level readings.
- Physics: Keep a loaded excavator balanced on a slope so it doesn't tip over.
- Engineering: Understand the hydraulics that power a bulldozer blade and spot leaks early.
A famous name
R. G. LeTourneau: Started as an earthmoving contractor in 1920, then invented big earthmoving machines, with 299 patents.
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: Which roof shape handles snow?.
Known for it in
Australia, Canada, USA, UAE, Germany