Rube Goldberg Machine

A Rube Goldberg Machine is a machine that uses many steps to over complicate a simple task.

Our Task

Our task was to create a Rube Goldberg machine with 10+ steps,5 simple machines such as a lever, pulley, screw, wheel and axle, wedge, and ramp. We also had to include a theme, 3 energy transfers, and 3 elements of design. 

Our Product

I am very happy with our product, it consisted of 15 steps, 3 elements of design, 5 simple machines, and 8+ energy transfers (only 3 mentioned). The goal of our machine was to turn on a shark bubble machine.

Our Machine

Initial                           Final

Important Physics Concepts In Our Project 

• Velocity plays a large role in our machine, it takes an important part in most of our steps.

• Acceleration also plays a big role in our machine, one step that it helps is the step where a small marble hits a larger marble. If the small marble had been going slower it would not have knocked over the larger marble.

• Force - Force is important in most of our steps.

• Work - Work plays an important part in any of our steps where an object makes another object move.

• Potential Energy (PE) - Potential energy is how much energy an object has when still, however much energy it has depends on its mass or height. 

• Kinetic Energy (KE) - Kinetic is how much energy an object has while in motion.

• Energy Transfer - An energy transfer is when an object at rest gets hit by an object in motion. An example of an energy transfer is PE ----> KE.

• Mechanical Advantage Real (MAReal) - Mechanical Advantage real is how much easier a tool makes a task.

• Mechanical Advantage Ideal (MAIdeal) -  Mechanical Advantage ideal is how much more effort you need to exert when you are using a tool.

• Simple Machine - The simple machines that we use in our project are screw, ramp, lever, wheel and axel, and pulley.

Reflection

I think that we could have done better on our project if more of our group members had been productive. If we had more groupmates working then our group would have done better. I also could have been a better groupmate. I was not productive for the entire project. I also was not good at leading some of my group members. This project taught me how to use power tools, this project also helped me deepen my understanding of physics concepts and how to use them.