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What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that contains multiple complex steps in order to complete a simple task. Each step puts forward a little bit of progress to reach the desired end goal. The name for the machines were named after American cartoonist, Rube Goldberg.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that contains multiple complex steps in order to complete a simple task. Each step puts forward a little bit of progress to reach the desired end goal. The name for the machines were named after American cartoonist, Rube Goldberg.
The Task:
My STEM group consisted of Osuke, Maddie, Sophie and me, Our theme for the Rube Goldberg machine was around the world. We added mutilate famous landmarks to try to make our theme obvious. For example, the statue of liberty, The Effie tower, and the pyramid of Giza, and many others. The goal is to create an operable and functional Rube Goldberg machine that consists of at least 10 steps, 4 different energy transfers, and 5 unique simple machines.
Evidence of Work:
Evidence of Work:
I was content with our final product. It consisted of 13 steps, with the final step being a lever that launched a plane. On the board, I helped with almost about everything from the levers, pulley, and guard rails for the various inclined planes. I also helped calculate some of the physics in the machine, such as velocity, and acceleration. I created the supports for the board as well. Also, we showed all of our work on another google sites which you can find here: https://sites.google.com/students.nusd.org/rubegoldbergmachine/home
Finished Goldberg Machine: Around the World
Finished Goldberg Machine: Around the World
IMG-1585.MOVOur final Blueprint:
Our 4 energy Transfers:
Our first energy transfer is when the marble hits the golf ball in step 2. Because the marble, a light ball, was transferring its KE the golf ball, a heavy ball, only 6% of KE energy was transferred.
(See step 2 for calculations)
Our second energy transfer is when the lever lifts to release the marble in step 4. The marble was previously in a suspended position with 0.008 J PE. After the lever lifts, this energy is converted to 0.0013 J KE.
(See step 4 for calculations)
Our third energy transfer is when the marble hits a larger marble, knocking it off of the wedge in step 8. Due to having a greater mass, the weight had more KE than the marble. This is why we chose it.
(See step 8 for calculations)
Our fourth energy transfer was when the weight hits the foam ball in steps 10-11. The weight, which had 0.017 J KE, transferred most of its energy to the foam ball. This gave the foam ball enough energy to actually move the following weight.
(See step 11 for calculations)
3 element of design:
1) Emphasis - We used emphasis when it came to sizing different steps in our project. We intentionally enlarged certain visual aspects like the volcano and the details in london.
2) Contrast - We used contrast by painting a navy blue background. This allowed the lighter features of our machine to be the center of attention. It also made it easier to follow the marble at all times, because not every bit of wood was the same color.
3) Unity - We used unity by making sure that most of our steps could be easily identified and connected to the theme. We also used unity when painting the background. We decided to paint a dark blue sky with clouds, because it was a good backdrop to connect different steps.
5 simple machines:
1) Inclined plane
1) Inclined plane
Our first type of simple machine is the inclined plane.
(Step 1, 5, 7, 9, 11)
2) Pulley
2) Pulley
Our second type of simple machine is the pulley.
(Step 3)
3) Screw
3) Screw
Our third type of simple machine is the screw.
(Step 6)
4) Lever
4) Lever
Our fourth type of simple machine is the lever.
(Step 4, 10, 12)
5) Wedge
5) Wedge
Our fifth type of simple machine is the wedge.
(Step 8)
Reflection:
Ultimately, I was decently pleased with my contribution and participation to the project and the overall outcome. My strengths in the project were my physical strength for drilling large holes, hot gluing, and some problem solving when contraptions didn't work. During the construction of the machine, we ran into many problems. But our biggest problem would have to be the golf ball rolling off the pulley and hitting the volcano which triggered the other levers. The solution I ended up thinking of was having a net to catch the golf, but the net was flimsily and wasn't big enough to continually and reliably catch the ball. But thankfully Mr. Williams helped us and used a staple gun and helped it work a lot better. Another skill was being able to was to find fixes for small problems. However, there were a couple places that I could improve on. I could improve on staying on task and not getting distracted. I also rarely struggled to cooperate with all my teammates at times. During the project, I didn't cooperate all the time because I thought an idea wouldn't work and sometimes I was right, but I should have just helped either way. Although we had some roadblock in our project, I am still happy with my contributions to the group, our project, and the overall outcome.
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