Rube Goldberg

What is a Rube Goldberg Machine Project?

On August 30, we were assigned a project to Make Rube Goldberg machines that consisted of 1 theme 10 steps and 5 simple machines. Our projected consisted of 1 theme, 15 steps and 5 simple machines. But you may be thinking, what does all this mean? A rube Goldberg Machine is a Machine deigned to do a simple action. Like open the blinds, turn on and off the lights, pick up a pencil or even pull up a Krabby Patty at the end of a fishing pole.

Our Rube Goldberg Machine

Required Materials Of Project

Theme

The theme of our project was Spongebob. We incorporated Spongebob in our project in a couple different ways. First, the background of the board. The background of our board is the same background of the "sky" in all Spongebob episodes. The second way we incorporated Spongebob into our project is by resembling all of our steps with some sort of under the water action. Such as, tubes for waves, levers for paddles, and more. The last way we incorporated Spongebob into our project is with our final step. For our final step Plankton, who is a character from Spongebob, pulls up a Krabby Patty because throughout the whole show Plankton is trying to figure out the "secret formula" to the Krabby Patty.

Steps

Step 1

The ball rolls down the ramp with an acceleration of 1.1 m/s squared and has a MA of 9x easier

Step 2

The ball hits the paddle and 100% of energy is transferred into the paddle

Step 3

The paddle hits a new ball on the other side and 100% of the energy is transferred from the paddle to the new ball

Step 4

The ball then free falls at 9.8 m/s² due to gravity in the free fall.

Step 5

The ball hits the other ball and goes down the new ramp. The ball hits the smaller ball again,

100% of the energy is transferred. The Mechanical Advantage is 3.8 easier

Step 6

The ball goes through the tube. The distance of the tube is 35.5 in, the time the ball takes to travel through the tube is 1.17 seconds and lastly the acceleration is 30.3 m/s squared

Step 7

The ball comes out and hits the board. The momentum of the ball coming out of the tube makes the ball hit against the board. 0.16m between the tube and the board 4/30 of a second 0.16 / 4/30

The ball has an acceleration of 1.2 m/s squared.

Step 8

The ball goes down the stairs. The ball drops down to the three steps. The ball has a free fall of 9.8 m/s squared

Each stair is 0.1m or 4 inches and it takes 8/30 of a second to go down the stairs. The acceleration is 0.375 m/s squared.

Step 9

The ball hits the bigger ball waiting at the bottom of the stairs. 100% of the energy is transferred into the bigger ball. This causes the ball to start motion.

Step 10

The big ball hits the weight and the end of the final ramp. The ball in motion continues to hit the weight and transfers all its energy into it. Then it falls into the cup.

Step 11

The weight then falls into the cup. The force on the weight from the ball is 0.49N

F=ma

F=0.050kg(9.8m/s²)

F=0.49N

Step 12

The cup then is pulled down because of all the weight in the cup

MA=1

Step 13

The same string then pulls out the wedge. The MA= 1

Step 14

The ball then falls off of the wedge into the tube with an acceleration of 9.8m/s squared

Step 15

The final step is the ball falling into the cup as it comes out the tube and as the cup goes down at one end of the string, at the other end the Krabby Patty is pulled up by "Plankton"

Simple Machines

Wedge

A wedge is a triangle shaped piece of wood used to either separate two objects or portions of a object, lift an object or hold an object in place. Our wedge help a marble in place until the pulley pulled the wedge out of its place allowing the marble to fall into the screw and then into the cup.

Pulley

A pulley is a simple machine that helps to change the direction and point of application of a pulling force. Our project consisted of 2 pulleys, the first pulley was at the end of the last ramp where the weight fell into the cup and pulled down so that the other end of the pulley could pull out the wedge. Our second pulley started after the wedge was pulled out and the marble fell threw the screw and into another cup and as that cup was being pulled down, at the other end of our pulley we had a burger being pulled up.

Screw

A screw is some sort of tube or board that completes a full circle. In our project our screw started as the wedge was pulled out from under the ball which lead the ball to fall into the tube that went in a complete circle.

Lever

A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. In our project we used a lever as the marble ran down the first ramp. The marble ran down the first ramp and hit and verticle piece of wood that sent the next ball down the ramp which continue to hit another ball at the other end of the lever.