Rube Goldberg Machine

Rube Goldberg Project- Indiana Jones in the Jurassic Jungle

Kylie Voelker, Brady Suter, Dominick Raffaini, Tyler Vuong, and Alex Sinitskiy

Purpose:

Our purpose is to successfully get Indiana Jones through Jurassic Jungle to the idol which is the treasure he is searching for. We decided to cut 7.5 inch boards out the sides for maximum stability, and for aesthetic appeal.

Elements of Design:

1. Rhythm- rhythm was created by the sounds of the marble falling when created rolling and falling down the step ramp at equal lengths, creating equal timing of the sounds

2. Balance- balance was created by having an equal number of actions on the sides ending in the middle of the board.

3. Contrast- contrast was created by having the multiple different colors of green for the forest to make the trees and background pop out.

Steps:

• Marble is dropped into a short tube at the top of the machine with an acceleration of 9.8m/s^2.

  • This step represents Indiana Jones dropping into the Jurassic Jungle

• Marble rolls along the four step ramps with an acceleration of 0.9m/s^2.

  • Representing Indiana flying through the air into the jungle, dodging pterodactyls along the way

• Ball falls with a downward force of 0.004N on to the lever and is released.

  • This raises a monkey on the other side and allows the ball to continue down to the next level

  • The lever represents a leaf dropping as the he hits it and falls into the canopy

• Marble rolls down the next four step ramps leading to the screw with a velocity of 4.15m/s

  • The next set of step ramps is used to show Indiana running and jumping down through the layers of the canopy

• The next marble is hit by the original larger marble and is dropped down the screw moving down the screw at an acceleration of 0.38m/s^2

  • This marble represents Indiana sliding down jungle vines to the lower level

• Marble from screw hits and releases the toy car with a force of 0.0004N

  • Showing Indiana has jumping into the awaiting jeep to avoid the large tyrannosaurus rex

• Car rolls down ramp and hits weight at the load side of the pendulum wheel releasing the downward force of the pendulum effort weight which is 0.49N

  • Signifying that Indie jumps out of the car to an awaiting vine before the jeep crashed

• Pendulum wheel is released and the load or upper weight swings with a velocity of 0.018m/s to contact the next marble

  • Representing that as the vine swings, Indie climbs up and lands on a branch

• Marble is dropped into the pulley with a force of 0.004N and activates the pulley system

  • In order to make it to the ground, Indie slides down a moving vine

• Pulley hits the marble and releases it from wedge, allowing it to roll down the final ramp with a velocity of 0.05m/s

  • Representing that as Indie hits the ground, he takes off running down the slope and into the river, fleeing from the lurking velociraptors

• Marble hits Lego man with magnet, knocking it over the edge, falling with an acceleration of 9.8m/s²

  • Signifying that when Indie reaches the end of the river, he jumps off the waterfall in order to reach the temple and its treasure

• Magnet of the Lego man is drawn to the magnet attached to idol

  • When Indiana sees the idol, he is immediately drawn towards it

Indiana Jones has made his way through Jurassic Park and has found his treasure.

Simple Machines

1. Lever: Our first simple machine was the lever at Step #3. The downward force of the marble acts as the effort on the lever, pushing the effort side down in order to raise the load side up, the load being the monkey suspended on the other side. As the lever is dropped to one side, the marble continues to the next level. The mechanical advantage is 0.54

2. Screw: The second simple machine is the screw at Step #5. Compared to a short downward drop, the screw creates a greater distance for the marble to move down and therefore allows the marble to accumulate a smaller amount of kinetic energy. The screw mechanical advantage is 4.2.

3. Wheel and Axle: The simple machine acting as the wheel and axle in our project is the pendulum at Step #8. The reason that the pendulum can be classified as a wheel is because there are two points of motion that can theoretically have a rotation of 360 degrees. The point representing the wheel is the weight at the bottom of the pendulum. This weight is the effort portion of the machine, enabling the wheel and axle to activate due to the force harnessed from this weight. The centerpoint of motion and weighted point in the middle of our pendulum is the axle. This point is representative of the load portion of the wheel. Due to the effort and force from the bottom of the wheel, the axle is activated and used to apply force to the following object (this being the next awaiting ball). The mechanical advantage is 1.5.

4. Pulley: The pulley is located at Step #10 and serves the purpose of lifting “Indiana Jones” into the cave below him. It moves the ball along the path to the final destination. The mechanical advantage is one due to the single pulley.

5. Wedge: There are multiple wedges along the way to keep respectively the car and last ball in place. We use them between the bottom of the object and top of the wood beam.The mechanical advantage is 2.

6. Incline Plane: We have many incline planes in a myriad of shapes and sizes. The mechanical advantage of one of the incline planes is 21.

Energy transfers

1. Potential to Kinetic: Step # 5. The marble is hit by another marble moving the prior one forward from potential to kinetic.

2. Potential to Kinetic: Step #7. The car goes from potential to kinetic energy when the ball hits the car starting the cars path of motion.

3. Potential to Kinetic: Step #8. The pendulum is potential energy but when it’s path of motion starts the potential energy turns into kinetic.

Potential to Kinetic: Step #11 The marble is potential held in place by the wedge. When the wedge is removed then the energy turns into kinetic as it races down the board.