How a stapler works · OakCrest Academy

📎 How a stapler works

The top arm is a lever (a rigid bar that turns about a fixed point); it swings on a pin called the hinge.
Pressing the arm brings the nose of the magazine down until it rests on the paper.
A thin steel blade, the driver, then pushes the front staple out of the strip and down through the paper.
Two curved grooves in the anvil beneath the paper bend the staple's legs inward until they lie flat; this fold is called the clinch.
When you release the arm, a return spring lifts it. A second spring presses on the strip all the time, so once the driver has risen clear, the next staple slides into the nose.

New words

lever: a rigid bar that turns about a fixed point; a push applied farther from that point needs less force
fulcrum: the fixed point a lever turns about; here, the hinge pin
driver: the thin steel blade that pushes each staple through the paper
anvil: the plate beneath the paper whose grooves fold the staple's legs
magazine: the channel that holds the strip of staples

🏠 Try it for real

With a grown-up, open a stapler and identify the strip, the pusher and the spring behind it. Then staple two sheets twice: once pressing near the hinge and once at the far end. Compare the effort, and keep your fingers clear of the nose.

💭 Talk about it

Pressing 15 cm from the hinge needs one third of the force needed 5 cm from it. Explain why, using the distances from the fulcrum.

Now explain it back: point at each part and say what it does.