Rube Goldberg Machine

The Beginning of the Project 

A Rube Goldberg machine achieves a simple goal using a circuitous series of steps. To start, we got out a piece of paper and drew a blueprint on it. Patrick drew the blueprint and a couple steps, and I finished the steps. Jackson finished the story I started too right when we were supposed to start in the makers space. We started designing the actual project on 9/12/2023. It was off to a rocky start. 

The Middle of the Project

In the middle of the project which was when we were actually building, things were very hectic. Half the team or more was off doing something random at a time, I was confused and most likely, everyone was confused on what they should and shouldn't do. I was getting a lackluster grade on leadership because I wasn't being very assertive when the real problem was that the whole team was scrambled and broken. The good thing though was that things were moving along at a sort of slow, but productive pace even though the team was disorganized. Things cleaned up on the last build days 7, 8, and 9, thankfully. "How?" you might ask? Well, I will show you in the next paragraph. 

Rube Goldberg Presentation:

The End of the Project

At the end of the project (final build days to editing days and the Saturday Academy day), things were at maximum cohesivity. The reason why is that we knew what we were supposed to do in the end of the project but not the beginning. Hence the easy collaboration. The only real hitch at this point was that everyone (except for lucas) had to go to Saturday Academy which was a shame. The bright side of that, Rube Goldberg Night, and the project in general? My team and I learned how to collaborate and work effectively group-work or not which I know will carry   on to the next project and onward.

Important Topics to know

Velocity: Velocity is distance covered over a certain amount of time, which is similar to speed. The only thing is that velocity can be negative

Example: The 67 gram steel inch wide ball, Ball A, Rolled down the first ramp at 0.9 meters per second.

Acceleration: Acceleration is velocity gained over time. This can be negative to represent a pulling force, not a pushing force.

Example: The acceleration of earth is 9.8 meters per second squared which means that if there was no air, an object would accelerate at a continuous rate of 9.8 meters per second per second. This controlled how fast the balls fell and how much energy they had at different points.

Force: Force is what you apply to an object when you move it.

Example: The force ball A put on the lever was 0.66 newtons.

Work: Work is the distance you move an object (in meters) times the amount of force you apply (in newtons).

Example: A good example of this is when the nuke fell and worked a certain amount in joules.

Potential Energy: Potential energy is the amount of energy an object could release from a certain height, disregarding air resistance.      Example: The potential energy of the 0.067 kg ball in the first step was 0.02 joules.

Kinetic Energy: Kinetic Energy is the amount of energy an object releases on its journey towards its rest state.

Example: The kinetic Energy of the ball in the first step was 0.0028 joules.

Mechanical Advantage: Mechanical advantage is the degree to which a machine makes a task easier.

Example: The mechanical advantage of the cutting mechanism is 1 because it didn't make the task easier or harder.

Simple Machines: Simple machines is machine that use basic physics in order to work. I am not talking about gas motors for example.    Examples: Pulley, ramp, screw, or a wedge.

Blueprinting schematics in scale: That is the scale you use to convert your blueprint to a working design.

Example: 5 scale means the actual machine is 5 times larger than the blueprint.

Construction Logs: Construction logs are records you keep on construction to give an idea of productivity.

Example: Day 1 we built a ramp. Day 2, finished a pulley. Day 3, we finished the machine. (Not my build log.)

What did me and my team learn? 

Me and my team learned that in order to function as a team, you need to delegate as well and as much as possible.

This means that you need a leader that delegates roles effectively, oversees work effectively,  and can help effectively.

The reason why we couldn't function well in the beginning was because we didn't really know what our goal was, therefore there was