Evidence of Work

Content

Velocity -- the rate at which you travel from one point to another(displacement) over a time interval, which is covered by both direction and magnitude; measured in m/s

• Velocity held the majority of our calculations as many of the steps and components revolved around movement. This could be done by capturing a slow motion video of the object in motion and seeing how long and far it traveled, which allows us to find the velocity. This included the declined planes, car launcher, and catapult. 

Acceleration -- The change in velocity over a time interval; measured in m/s^2

• To add onto the calculations for velocity, we I also included the calculations for velocity. Similar to velocity, I calculated the acceleration on almost every component that included movement, stretching from the ramps to the catapult.

Force -- a pull/push that is exerted onto a object to change its motion; measured in Newtons(N)

• Throughout the machine, a compilation of collisions were occurring. These forces allowed me to incorporate them into the calculations by finding masses and accelerations, which could be found in many of the energy transfers around around the machine.

Mass -- the amount of "stuff" or matter found in an object; generally measured in kilograms(kg)

• Mass was needed in our machine due to the fact that it is a valued component that determines the outcome of calculations to other components. This can be seen when calculating the force, kinetic energy, and potential energy of objects in our machine. A few examples are the masses of our balls, car, marbles, and water bottle, which were all key components.

Work -- the transfer of energy due to the force put into an object to change its position; measured in Joules(J)

• In order to understand how things were moved and caused, we need to calculate the work. This can be seen in multiple different steps, such as the lever hitting the baseball, the tennis ball hitting the launcher, and the marbles colliding with each other.

Kinetic Energy (KE) -- energy that is built up through motion; measured in Joules(J)

• Every single step of our machine involves motion, which allowed me to calculate the kinetic energy of each object in motion. This calculation could be seen in the objects traveling down declined planes and across flats.

Potential Energy (PE) -- energy that is held at a height while being motionless and affected by gravity; measured in Joules(J)

• Before objects go into motion, they are placed at rest on the flats or other pieces. This allowed me to calculate potential energy of the objects by noticing how far off the ground they were and incorperating the mass and force of gravity. This could be seen by the baseball, tennis ball, and marbles, which were all held at rest.

Distance -- the space between 2 points that is generally the total length of the path taken; generally measured in meters(m)

• Within many of the calculations, distance is a major factor to successfully calculating the outcome. Additionally, distance is also used to find the length of pieces on the board and how far an object traveled on the machine.

Time -- a sequence of events within an interval; generally measured in seconds(s)

• Similar to distance, time is used to calculate the value to other more noticeable factors, such as velocity and acceleration. However, I also used time to go alongside the distances of certain objects. This can be seen when I say, "The baseball traveled 0.4m in 0.66s."

Mechanical Advantage (MA) -- the measure of the increase or decrease of a force applied to a machine; determines how many "times easier," "times farther," or "times more"

• Throughout the entire machine, mechanical advantage was most notably seen in two simple machines, the lever and pulley. Due to the output force to input force ratio of the lever, we could calculate how much more force we were applying due to the differing distances of the two side of the lever. Similarly, we found that the pulley had a MA of 1 due to the single pulley, meaning the input distance of one side equal the output distance of the other.

Simple Machines -- a machine that is used to change the direction, magnitude, or motion of an object with minimal effort

• The six simple machines available included the pulley, wedge, screw, lever, wheel and axle, and inclined plane

• Simple machines are needed to activate, continue, and end our machine, which allows us to use five of the six simple machines, the pulley, wedge, screw, lever, and inclined plane. These could be seen as the baseball bat(lever), ramps(inclined plane), water break step(pulley), ski holder(wedge), and ski slope(screw).

Schematics

Construction Log

Reflection

The Rube Goldberg Machine threw me straight into the feeling of a high school STEM project. The level of detail and precision that was used, amount of hands-on experience, and the pressure of presenting to large crowds taught me many things, as I had started my journey as a STEM student.

Within this project, I had multiple moments where I had learned more than I had done. For one, the creative mindset of an engineer is very much needed, especially when building a complex machine from scratch. This opportunity allowed me to use my creativity to understand how to work the machine effectively and complete the calculations efficiently. Additionally, I had learned to value my ability to follow communication and collaboration with my group members. Regardless of how much one person did, this end was not achievable without the work from the entire group as a whole. This was especially seen during the building portion of the project, in which we needed assistance from each other. Moreover, many of the goals were split between each group member, which brought more communication into the work. Lastly, the most important skill I valued was critical thinking. This project introduced multiple new concepts of technical and logistical engineering into my picture, which initiated my ability to think critically in certain moments, whether it was calculating each part of the machine, placing the correct piece in an accurate position, or finding a way to complete to work efficiently.

While many of these skills were achieved through what happened successfully, a number of them were also developed through the challenges I faced. For instance, the calculations of the project were by far some of the most difficult parts, despite being relatively short. While other machines were a combination of ramps and balls, our machine incorporated much more difficult components, such as catapults and string force. While using the accurate equations would have been very difficult with our components, I had to manually find the maximum height and force of objects by using the properties of projectile motion. Despite this being a much longer process, it developed a simpler idea with the same result, which also made it easier for audience members to understand. This brings up another challenge, creating an appealing presentation for the audience. Words and complex calculations would not help the audience understand things, so I took a different approach from others by creating diagrams of what was exactly happening in the machine. These hand-made diagrams, alongside the calculations, allowed audience members to absorb the information easily; however, I could still notice that it was a bit much to collect, which gives me the opportunity to create a better model next time. 

While the Rube Goldberg Machine was filled with success, challenges, and failures, I truly enjoyed the assignment, and I believe it was a great start to my engineering life with the hands-on experience, skills, and assets I gained through it.