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Our Task
For my project, I was put in a group with Autumn (Devin) Lawrence-Hall, Brooklyn Lee-Yon, and Benjamin Lotosh and given the task of constructing a Rube Goldberg machine within the allotted time window of 6 weeks (9/5/2023 - 10/10/2023).Β
What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
A Rube Goldberg Machine is a contraption that uses a "chain reaction" to perform a simple task. These reactions can be made of 6 simple machines: an inclined plane, lever, wedge, wheel & axle, pulley, and screw (definitions and examples located in Mathematical Content). The "Rube Goldberg" part of a Rube Goldberg Machine is named after Rube Goldberg who was a famous American cartoonist, sculptor, actor, engineer, and inventor. Rube Goldberg was also the one who created the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine.
Slideshow Details:
Along with our psychical Rube Goldberg Machine, we had a slideshow presentation prepared.Β
The slideshow includes:
Introduction of group, theme, + project (1)
Description of our 13 steps (2 - 16)
Calculations (17)
5 simple machines (18)
4 energy transfers (19)
3 elements of design (20 - 23)
Construction Log (24)
Blueprints (25 & 26)
Video (27)
Blueprints
Here are close-up images of our original blueprint and our final blueprint. These images are also located on slides 25 & 26 of the slideshow above.
<------- original blueprint
final + to scale blueprint --------------------------------->
for the final blueprint, every box = 2 inches.
* the arrows only align if you are on a computer screen*
Mathematical Content
Definitions and examples of acceleration, velocity, force, work, potential energy, kinetic energy, mechanical advantage ideal and real, simple machines, and blueprints.
ACCELERATION (a): rate of change in speeding up/velocity slowing down; a=ΞV/Ξt
EX: When calculating the acceleration of the ball rolling down the ramp in step 1, we used the equation a=ΞV/Ξt to find the rate of acceleration the ball is going.
VELOCITY (V): rate of distance covered in a direction (how fast/slow); V=Ξd/Ξt
EX: In order to calculate the acceleration of the ball rolling down the ramp in step 1, we need to find the change in velocity (ΞV) before calculating the acceleration.
FORCE (F): push or pull on an object causing a change in motion; F=ma
EX: In the ninth step of our Rube Goldberg Machine, a golf ball would free fall onto two cylinders. To calculate the force exerted on the two cylinders, we used the equation F=ma.
WORK (W): energy put into something; W=Fd
EX: We did not include W in our Rube Goldberg Machine but one example where you would use it would be calculating how much effort it took to push a 5kg object up a 2m by 5m inclined plane.
POTENTIAL ENERGY (PE): energy an abject has by being at a height or position in a gravitational field; PE=mgΞh
EX: We did not include PE in our Rube Goldberg Machine because instead of calculating PE, we calculated for F. Both can be substituted for each other.
KINETIC ENERGY (KE): energy due to motion; KE=1/2 mvΒ²
EX: We did not include KE in our Rube Goldberg machine because if we calculated for KE, then we would also have to calculate the PE. So instead we calculated for F.Β
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE REAL (MA real): how much easier (less F) than a tool makes a task; MA real= F load/F effort
EX: In the 10th and 11th steps of our Rube Goldberg Machine, we calculated the Mechanical Advantage of our pulley and our lever.Β
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE IDEAL (MA ideal): how much further (moved d) you have to push when using a tool; MA ideal= d load/d effort
EX: We did not use MA ideal in our calculations because nothing in our steps required the calculations. But one instance for when you would use MA ideal would be when calculating the Mechanical Advantage of a bike.
SIMPLE MACHINES: a basic device that makes a task easier, 6 types: lever, wheel & axel, pulley, inclined place (a ramp), wedge, and a screw
EX: Steps 1, 3, 6, and 8 - 12 include the 6 simple machines. Scroll up to Slideshow to see the descriptions for each step.
BLUEPRINTS: a design plan or a technical drawing
EX: Scroll up to Blueprints to see or scroll further up to Slideshow and go to slides 25 & 26.
Video
Here is the link to our video. You can also view this in our slideshow on slide 27.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11EOIzSUt591_tGa4sOMyMKB59oamew8T/view?resourcekey
Reflection
Overall, I think that as my first project in high school, my Rube Goldberg Machine came out pretty good. Rube Goldberg Night on the 10th was very successful with us receiving an average score of 3.5 (an A) from the judges. What I think me and my group excelled the most out of the 6C's was character and cultural competence because we all added a little bit of ourselves into our Rube Goldberg Machine and we were easily able to listen to each other without judging beforehand.Β
But along with those successes I have 2 areas I would like to work on. The first one is collaboration. While we collaborated amazingly as a group, I feel like there were some areas where we could work on.Β For example, splitting the work evenly among ourselves as possible. The second one is being a conscientious learner. We constantly were behind on build days so we had to do some of the project on our own time and I feel like we could've been more conscious about our timing and learning in general.
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