List of devices

A photocopier is a device that makes copies of flat images, like the pages from a book. Photocopiers used to only be able to make black and white copies but today many photocopiers can make color copies too.

A plough is a device for breaking up the soil in a field or garden before crops are planted. Ploughing the soil makes it softer and easier for plants to grow, and turns the soil over so any vegetation leftover from an earlier crop will go underground and add nutrients to the soil. Ploughs used to make one furrow at a time and were pulled by horses like in the picture. Today they can make dozens of furrows at a time and are pulled by tractors.

A plunger is a device made up of a rubber cup on the end of a stick. The cup is put over a drain and pushed up and down to break up blockages in plumbing.

A propellor is a type of fan that is used on planes and ships to propel them forward. Sometimes a propeller is called a screw.

A pulley, also called a block and tackle, is a device that can change the direction of a force (ie, pulling downwards to raise something up), or can make it much easier to move something. You can use a pulley to move something very heavy by pulling a rope or chain through the pulley much further than you would without the pulley, but the load feels much lighter while you do it. Pulleys are used frequently in the rigging of ships.