“It is easier to conquer than to administer.
With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world;
but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
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The Basics
A good place to begin understanding the concept of leverage is the etymology of the word.
We can trace its origins back to the Proto-Indo-European ‘legwh’ which described something light, agile, or easy. From this, the Latin ‘levare’ formed, which referred to something that was ‘not heavy.’ But the word absorbed into English in the 14th century from Old French, where ‘levier’ referred to raising something (hence the reflexive verb, ‘se lever’ which, in general, is used in the context of getting up in the morning.) So in essence, leverage refers to making something light by raising it in a specific manner.The fusion of these two ideas perfectly describes a physical lever- a pole connected to a fulcrum which serves to create additional strength or force. A lever does not bend or create additional friction.
Three main types of physical levers have been identified
- Levers with the fulcrum in the middle. A force is applied on one side and the load is on the other side (such as a crowbar.)
- Levers where the load is placed in the middle and the force is applied on one side, with the fulcrum located on the other (such as a bottle opener.)
- Levers where the force is applied in the middle (such as our lower jaw bones.)
Archimedes is credited with establishing the concept of leverage, over 2000 years ago.
He famously stated that, given a lever long enough and enough distance, he could lift the earth.In On the Equilibrium of Planes, Archimedes wrote: “Magnitudes in equilibrium at distances are reciprocally proportional to their weights.”
However, the Peripatetic School (the followers of Aristotle) wrote of levers before the birth of Archimedes. In Mechanica, a work believed to have been written by members of this school of thought, they state:
Why is it that small forces can move great weights by means of a lever, as was said at the beginning of the treatise, seeing that one naturally adds the weight of the lever? For surely the smaller weight is easier to move, and it is smaller without the lever. Is the lever the reason, being equivalent to a beam with a cord attached below, and divided into two equal parts? For the fulcrum acts as the attached cord : for both these remain stationary, and act as a centre. For since under the impulse of the same weight the greater radius from the centre moves the more rapidly, and there are three elements in the lever, the fulcrum, that is the cord or centre, and the two weights, the one which causes the movement, and the one that is moved : now the ratio of the weight moved to the weight moving it is the inverse ratio of the distances from the centre. Now, the greater the distance from the fulcrum, the more easily it will move. The reason has been given before that the point further from the centre describes the greater circle, so that by the use of the same force, when the motive force is farther from the lever, it will cause a greater movement.
Like many of our mental models, leverage is a scientific concept which has applications in many other areas.
Leverage is an idea which humans have used to great effect for thousands of years, enabling them to gain disproportionate strength. For example, the ancient Egyptians used levers to lift stones weighing up to 100 tons in order to build the pyramids and obelisks. Many of humanity’s tools, used for centuries all over the world, incorporate levers- scissors, pliers, door handles, wheelbarrows, fishing rods and more.
The concept of leverage has been applied to other areas over the last century or so. In Decision Making, Alan C McLucas defines leverage and leverage points as:
Leverage is built on the notion that small, well focused actions can sometimes produce significant, enduring improvements if they are applied in the right place. Tacking a difficult problem is often a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies.
… A leverage point is where a small difference can make a large difference. Leverage points provide kernel ides and procedures for formulating solutions. Identifying leverage points helps us: create new courses of action, develop increased awareness of those things that may cause a difficult before there are any obvious signs of trouble and figure out what is causing a difficult.
Leverage in Negotiations and Business
“You don’t convince people by challenging their longest and most firmly held opinions. You find common ground and work from there. Or you look for leverage to make them listen. Or you create an alternative with so much support from other people that the opposition voluntarily abandons its views and…
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