Rube Goldberg Machine
Overview
The goal of our Rube Goldberg project was to dump tips into a tip jar. You could get out of having to pay a tip at a restaurant by just putting on a show with this machine.
Our Rube Goldberg machine utilized all six of the simple machines. These are inclined planes, pulleys, levers, wheels and axles, screws, and wedges (If you want to know more, scroll down to the 'Simple Machines' section. Our project also contains 10 steps. Through trial and error during the process of building the project, we ended up changing 4 of our steps.
Making our Rube Goldberg project took lots of time and work, and was also a very difficult experience, but I lived. Our project (on average) would work about 19 out of 20 times and me and my group were very proud of the end result. However, I think we could have made it a bit better by decorating our project, because it was quite bland. During this project, I learned a lot about myself as well. For example, I realized that I need to be more assertive and divide work so that I don't end up doing most of it. This project was a great introduction to the year.
Here, you can see our Original Plan and the Final Product:
Our Rube Goldberg machine utilized all six of the simple machines. These are inclined planes, pulleys, levers, wheels and axles, screws, and wedges (If you want to know more, scroll down to the 'Simple Machines' section. Our project also contains 10 steps. Through trial and error during the process of building the project, we ended up changing 4 of our steps.
Making our Rube Goldberg project took lots of time and work, and was also a very difficult experience, but I lived. Our project (on average) would work about 19 out of 20 times and me and my group were very proud of the end result. However, I think we could have made it a bit better by decorating our project, because it was quite bland. During this project, I learned a lot about myself as well. For example, I realized that I need to be more assertive and divide work so that I don't end up doing most of it. This project was a great introduction to the year.
Here, you can see our Original Plan and the Final Product:
Steps
(sorry for the excessive reading)
- Step 1: The first step is two inclined planes. A golf ball rolls down this with an acceleration of 4.54 meters per second squared.
- Step 2: The second step involves a pulley. The golf ball lands into this pulley after rolling down the inclined planes. The pulley has a mechanical advantage of 1.
- Step 3: Next, the cup on the other side of pulley is raised and will hit a lever. The lever has a mechanical advantage of 1.
- Step 4: The lever is hit on the left side of it's fulcrum. The lever will tilt, and hit a wheel and axle on the right side. The wheel and axle will then begin rolling down an inclined plane with an acceleration of 0.19 meters per second squared.
- Step 5: The inclined plane which the wheel and axle rolls down is our fifth step. At the end of the inclined plane, a marble is sitting still, waiting to be hit. The wheel and axle hits the marble with a force of 0.004 Newtons.
- Step 6: After the marble is hit, it will be pushed into a screw which is curved around a post. While rolling through this screw, the marble builds up an acceleration of 0.247 meters per second.
- Step 7: For the seventh step, the marble will fall out of the end of the screw, and land onto an inclined plane. While rolling down the plane, the marble will build up a force of 0.0075 Newtons.
- Step 8: After rolling to the end, the marble will roll off the end of the plane and into a cup with a velocity of 1.47 meters per second squared. This cup is attached to a lever with a mechanical advantage of one. The added weight from the marble will give the cup enough weight to cause the other side of the lever to shift upward.
- Step 9: On the other side of the lever is a long piece of wood. Once it is raised, it will bump into a golf ball. The ball will begin to roll down two inclined planes and build up an acceleration of 0.3 meters per second squared.
- Step 10: For the final step of our project, the golf ball will bump into a wedge with a force of 0.0135 Newtons. This wedge will act as a 'pusher,' and will push some coins into a tip jar below.
- Step 11: SUCCESS!!! Now watch it work.
Simple Machines
- Inclined Plane- A flat surface that is angled.
- Screw- an inclined plane that goes around in a circle.
- Pulley- A wheel on an axle that a rope goes through.
- Lever- A bar or plank on a fixed point called a fulcrum.
- Wedge- Something that holds something else in place, or something that is used to split something else apart.
Terms
- Newton- The standard unit measurement for force.
- Joule- The standard unit measurement for energy.
- Potential Energy- Energy an object has stored because of its position.
- Kinetic Energy- Energy an object has due to motion.
- Mechanical Advantage- How much easier a machine makes something.
NOTE: The reason why Kinetic and Potential energy is the same is because all of its potential energy theoretically should turn to its kinetic energy.
Pictures of Building
(scroll over the images to see the caption)