How hydraulics can crush cars

Hydraulics work on a simple principle: transferring force from one place to another using an incompressible fluid – often oil. A pump supplies oil at high pressure, which is fed to hydraulic cylinders and pistons. The fluid is not compressed, allowing most of the force to be transferred to the crushing plates. By altering the piston and cylinder size, the force generated by the pump can be massively multiplied, allowing relatively small amounts of fluid to do huge amounts of work – like scrunching up a car as easily as a packet of crisps!

They might not look like much but hydraulic pipes can generate incredible power