Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist, known for depicting complex machines that performed simple tasks
Project Goal: To learn about simple machines and energy transfers.
Task: To design and build an effective rube Goldberg machine as a group, then present our final result at the Rube Goldberg presentation night.
Requirements:
Project must contain at least five simple machines. (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, wheel/axle, inclined plane)
Project must contain at least four energy transfers.
Project must contain 10 steps (simple machines).
The project must be presented at the Rube Goldberg Presentation Night on October 1st.
Project History: We spent our first day designing our Rube Goldberg machine. We came up with a pretty solid idea which inspired our final product. On day two, we received the board in which we could design our project on, and we also began to gather materials for our machine. We spent the next two weeks building our Rube Goldberg machine. We ran into many troubles along the way. It was very challenging to build some of our concepts, which made us change our design quite a few times. It was also difficult to use the wood provided because it was hard to find necessary pieces that would fit our needs. With limited hot/super glue, it was troublesome trying to attach some items that couldn't be attached using nails or screws. Despite the troubles, with great team effort, we completed our Rube Goldberg on Monday the 29th, two days before the Presentation Night. We spent the following day painting and decorating our machine, as well as tweaking a few steps to insure our machine ran flawlessly. We also spent some time practicing our presentation, drawing our schematics, and creating a slideshow to show at the presentation. On Wednesday, we demonstrated our machines to the class, and practiced our presentations even more. We spent the rest of class time preparing for the evening. Rube Goldberg night was a success. I had so much fun getting to finally present our end product to audiences. Also, it was quite enjoyable to watch other groups present. This was a fantastic project to start off the year!
Steps:
Step 1: A marble is kicked by a boot and rolls down an inclined plane.
Step 2: The marble then goes down a pipe and onto a series of 5 inclined planes.
Step 3: The marble rolls and hits a larger marble, knocking a golf ball off a lever.
Step 4: The golf ball rolls and hits a ball off the edge of the ramp, initiating a Newton's Cradle.
Step 5: The last Newton's cradle ball hits a marble down a ramp, which will trigger two other marbles.
Step 6: The marbles travel down a screw, hitting a tennis ball at the end, causing it to roll down a ramp.
Step 7: The tennis ball triggers a catch, releasing a wedge (with a razor edge at the tip).
Step 8: The wedge swings and chops a string that goes through two pulleys.
Step 9: The string releases a ball through a hoop, concluding the machine.
Terms:
Force: Force can be described as a push or pull. It is calculated with the formula F =ma.
Acceleration: Acceleration is the rate of change in an object's motion. It is calculated with the formula ΔV/ΔT.
Speed/Velocity: Speed is the amount of distance an object covers in a given amount of time, and velocity is speed with a direction. It is calculated with the formula Distance/Time
Mechanical Advantage: Mechanical advantage is how much easier the machine makes work. This is calculated by dividing the input distance over the output distance.
Kinetic Energy: Kinetic energy is how much energy an object has due to motion. It is calculated by multiplying 1/2mv^2. Kinetic energy changes to potential energy as something falls.
Impulse: Impulse is the amount of force applied for a given amount of time. It is calculated by multiplying force and time. When an object hits another object there is an impulse.
Momentum: Momentum is how much energy a moving object carries with it. It is calculated by multiplying mass and velocity. When the marble rolls down the inclined plane it has momentum.
Work: Work is the amount of force applied to move an object a certain distance. It is calculated with the formula W = FxD.
Reflection: The Rube Goldberg Project was a great success and tested many areas of our knowledge including leadership, cooperation skills, time management, and presentation performance. Two skills I gained during this project were group leadership, and speaking clearly to an audience. An example of how I led my leadership skills was when my group wasn't very productive at first, and I pulled everyone together to start building the proper way. We agreed it would work efficiently and executed our plan from there on. For our presentation night, we had already rehearsed our script several times so we were prepared both mentally and physically. Each time we rehearsed we got better and better. We memorized what to say and we assigned roles for everyone to have a chance to speak, and had somewhat of a script so that nobody would be confused when it was their turn to talk. Also, our project had a designated deadline that we had to be completely finished by. This means planning out day by day the reasonable amount of work we would get done. Time management became a struggle when we didn’t have the right materials we needed to work with. However, we pulled together in the end and finished with some time to spare. In the future I believe I can work on managing our time and distributing work a little better. Overall, there is room to improve and become a better leading role.
Rube Goldberg Machine video
We had trouble getting the golf ball to roll down the ramp (Step 6-7)
Project Goal: To learn about simple machines and energy transfers.
Task: To design and build an effective rube Goldberg machine as a group, then present our final result at the Rube Goldberg presentation night.
Requirements:
Project must contain at least five simple machines. (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, wheel/axle, inclined plane)
Project must contain at least four energy transfers.
Project must contain 10 steps (simple machines).
The project must be presented at the Rube Goldberg Presentation Night on October 1st.
Project History: We spent our first day designing our Rube Goldberg machine. We came up with a pretty solid idea which inspired our final product. On day two, we received the board in which we could design our project on, and we also began to gather materials for our machine. We spent the next two weeks building our Rube Goldberg machine. We ran into many troubles along the way. It was very challenging to build some of our concepts, which made us change our design quite a few times. It was also difficult to use the wood provided because it was hard to find necessary pieces that would fit our needs. With limited hot/super glue, it was troublesome trying to attach some items that couldn't be attached using nails or screws. Despite the troubles, with great team effort, we completed our Rube Goldberg on Monday the 29th, two days before the Presentation Night. We spent the following day painting and decorating our machine, as well as tweaking a few steps to insure our machine ran flawlessly. We also spent some time practicing our presentation, drawing our schematics, and creating a slideshow to show at the presentation. On Wednesday, we demonstrated our machines to the class, and practiced our presentations even more. We spent the rest of class time preparing for the evening. Rube Goldberg night was a success. I had so much fun getting to finally present our end product to audiences. Also, it was quite enjoyable to watch other groups present. This was a fantastic project to start off the year!
Steps:
Step 1: A marble is kicked by a boot and rolls down an inclined plane.
Step 2: The marble then goes down a pipe and onto a series of 5 inclined planes.
Step 3: The marble rolls and hits a larger marble, knocking a golf ball off a lever.
Step 4: The golf ball rolls and hits a ball off the edge of the ramp, initiating a Newton's Cradle.
Step 5: The last Newton's cradle ball hits a marble down a ramp, which will trigger two other marbles.
Step 6: The marbles travel down a screw, hitting a tennis ball at the end, causing it to roll down a ramp.
Step 7: The tennis ball triggers a catch, releasing a wedge (with a razor edge at the tip).
Step 8: The wedge swings and chops a string that goes through two pulleys.
Step 9: The string releases a ball through a hoop, concluding the machine.
Terms:
Force: Force can be described as a push or pull. It is calculated with the formula F =ma.
Acceleration: Acceleration is the rate of change in an object's motion. It is calculated with the formula ΔV/ΔT.
Speed/Velocity: Speed is the amount of distance an object covers in a given amount of time, and velocity is speed with a direction. It is calculated with the formula Distance/Time
Mechanical Advantage: Mechanical advantage is how much easier the machine makes work. This is calculated by dividing the input distance over the output distance.
Kinetic Energy: Kinetic energy is how much energy an object has due to motion. It is calculated by multiplying 1/2mv^2. Kinetic energy changes to potential energy as something falls.
Impulse: Impulse is the amount of force applied for a given amount of time. It is calculated by multiplying force and time. When an object hits another object there is an impulse.
Momentum: Momentum is how much energy a moving object carries with it. It is calculated by multiplying mass and velocity. When the marble rolls down the inclined plane it has momentum.
Work: Work is the amount of force applied to move an object a certain distance. It is calculated with the formula W = FxD.
Reflection: The Rube Goldberg Project was a great success and tested many areas of our knowledge including leadership, cooperation skills, time management, and presentation performance. Two skills I gained during this project were group leadership, and speaking clearly to an audience. An example of how I led my leadership skills was when my group wasn't very productive at first, and I pulled everyone together to start building the proper way. We agreed it would work efficiently and executed our plan from there on. For our presentation night, we had already rehearsed our script several times so we were prepared both mentally and physically. Each time we rehearsed we got better and better. We memorized what to say and we assigned roles for everyone to have a chance to speak, and had somewhat of a script so that nobody would be confused when it was their turn to talk. Also, our project had a designated deadline that we had to be completely finished by. This means planning out day by day the reasonable amount of work we would get done. Time management became a struggle when we didn’t have the right materials we needed to work with. However, we pulled together in the end and finished with some time to spare. In the future I believe I can work on managing our time and distributing work a little better. Overall, there is room to improve and become a better leading role.
Rube Goldberg Machine video
We had trouble getting the golf ball to roll down the ramp (Step 6-7)