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Difficulty Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Difficulty Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Parental supervision not required, but recommended.
Parental supervision not required, but recommended.
Background
Background
First Things First: Who was Rube Goldberg and what's up with these machines?
Rube Goldberg was a popular cartoonist during the early to mid 1900's. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in engineering, then went on in his cartooning career. Goldberg's cartoons were most famous for their critiques of the human obsession with technology, and his artwork is actually why these machines are named after him.
These zany contraptions pictured in his cartoons quickly became what he was most famously know for, and in 1948 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his work in Editorial Cartooning.
So what are these machines anyway?
Rube Goldberg Machines are machines designed to do simple tasks in incredibly complicated ways. There are many different ways to make them, and there are no rules, so lets get into it!
The Experiment
The Experiment
There are many tasks you can choose to be your end goal for your machine. Here are some easy examples:
Get a ball in a cup
Closing a door
Pouring a drink
Switching a light on or off
Dropping something in the trash
Popping a balloon
Watering a plant
The possibilities are truly endless!
Today we’re going be getting a ball into a cup with our at-home Rube Goldberg Machine to start off easy. Let's look at our materials.
What You'll Need:
What You'll Need:
Cup
ping pong ball (or any small, lightweight ball)
dominoes
paper or cardboard
tape
Experiment Steps:
Experiment Steps:
Place dominoes in whatever pattern you please as long as they tip each other over on a table/chair.
2. Place ball at the end of the dominoes make sure the last domino can hit the ball.
3. Make a ramp using paper and tape to go off the table/chair. You can do this by folding your paper/cardboard in three with the middle being bigger than the edges.
4. Place the cup at the bottom of the ramp as pictured.
5. Tumble over the dominos and watch the reaction happen and the ball end up in the cup.
6. Try different combos of parts and have some extra creative fun!
Conclusion
Conclusion
This fun activity encourages you to let your imagination go anywhere it wants! Make sure to be creative and get those brain juices flowing! Rube Goldberg would have been right there with you making those crazy contraptions.
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