A wedge can be a simple machine.
A wedge is a piece that ends in a very acute dihedral angle . It can be made of metal , wood or other material and is used to fit or tighten one solid body with another, to wedge them together or to divide them. The wedge also allows you to fill a gap or crack.
For example: "We will need a wedge to repair the damage that was done to the wall" , "The only way to fit everything in this box is with a wedge" , "I think the shoe will only fit my foot with the help of a wedge .
In this sense, for example, we could say that a wedge is the piece finished at an angle and that is made of wood that is used in many homes around the world with the clear objective of preventing a door from closing. Thus, it remains open thanks to the fact that it is located between the door itself and the floor.
The wedge as a simple machine
The simple machine that has the shape described above is known as a wedge. It is a double inclined plane that can be moved from one place to another: when the wedge moves in the direction of its pointed end, it generates a force perpendicular to the direction of movement .
Any sharp element can act as a wedge and is used that way. A knife , nail , or chisel can therefore serve as a wedge.
A chisel can be used as a wedge.
A container and different parts of the body
Wedge, on the other hand, is a container with the appropriate shape to collect urine and excrement from a person who, for physical or health reasons, cannot leave their bed to go to the bathroom.
Within the field of medicine and anatomy, we have to say that the term wedge is also used with other meanings. Thus, for example, that word is what gives name to a part of the occipital lobe of the brain that is identified by having a cuneiform shape and because it is on the inner side of it. Furthermore, a wedge is each of the three bones that make up the tarsus.
Other uses of the term wedge
In the field of media , the concept of a spot is used in some countries to name a short advertising space.
It should not be overlooked either that wedge is, in the same way, a type of military and tactical training that has been used by armies since ancient times. It consists of establishing a kind of triangle in such a way that the bravest soldiers with the best chance of obtaining victory were at the apex and on the sides.
All this without forgetting that there is also what is known as an ice wedge. This is a fissure that is created in the ground as a result of the fact that a freezing zone has occurred inside it. It usually appears, as you might imagine, in the winter and is characterized by having a length of about three meters long.
For zoology , the cuneiform bones found in the tarsus of mammals are called wedges.
Meteorologists , finally, use the notion of wedge to name the formation of certain pressures that enter different pressure zones and produce atmospheric changes.