Rube Goldberg Machine

Rube Goldberg Machine: An ingeniously or unnecessarily complicated in design or construction.

Reflection

Going through the ups and downs of the project was very fun and hard. I learned that know matter the struggle and anger, there is always a way to get through it. For example: my group was having a hard time putting our ideas onto our board and there was a lot of arguing, but that only motivated us to find a way to put that idea onto our board. Being the "handyman" of the group was one way that helped me stay focused and help the building piece come together. Also allowing everyone's ideas and not discouraging anyone's ideas with negative comments was something I did well out. As the project went on, my use of tools expanded and I understood how most cutting tools worked.

One thing that I need to work on is my use of using certain tools for the right time. For example: I used hot glue for connecting our inclined planes to the board and I should have used a drill to connect the inclined planes to the board. Another thing that I need to work on is using my time management more carefully and not go wondering off to other peoples groups, or socializing with my friends about non-science topics. If using my time more wisely, there could have been more done to the project and not having to rush the project on the last couple of days. These are things that I can improve on and am going to focus on these struggles during our next STEM projects.

Project Description

During the time making our Rube Goldberg machine, we had an amazing start to the project, which led to an even greater ending to our project. With great work ethics and determination my team and I each conquered our collective goals. We had problems here and there, but we managed to overcome them. One problem was using are time wisely because we wasted a good amount off time being off topic. One positive was we accomplished our one goal for the project. With our 3 days of planning we decided to go with a kitchen theme for our project. We started with our blueprint and what materials we needed. We came up with some creative ideas using our 5 simple machines. Wheel & axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and a lever. After our 3 days of planning, we had 9 days to put our blueprint and ideas onto our board

We started by placing one of our boards flat horizontally on the ground and then we drilled our other board vertically on the horizontal board. We went from top to bottom by adding at two ramps for our first step. Day 2 & Day 3 we did very little by adding a couple blocks of wood and having a hard time putting a kitchen theme on our board. on day 4 we made the switch from going to a soccer theme. Day 5 & day 6 we added a pulley system, a lever, a long tubed ramp and cut a piece of wood into smaller pieces of wood like dominoes. Day 7, 8, & 9 were the finishing days adding flat pieces of wood, a wedge, making our soccer goal and ball, also adding in 4 inclined planes, and making our wheel & axle. These last 3 days were very productive days and I had a lot of fun finishing up our machine.

During the days of building it was a lot of fun and great way to meet new people. We had a lot of ups and a couple downs when things weren't going the way we wanted them to. There was very little arguing and a lot of positive communication. Everyone in the group was planning a huge role and did their tasks with confidence. After building though, we still had 3 days of preparation before presenting to our audiences.

When practicing presenting our Rube Goldberg machine we had to each repeat our parts that we were going to say over and over until we had mastered. Our group felt confident going into the day that we we were going to present our machine. That night when we presented our machine we had no fear of the crowd and just did what we were practicing for 3 days ago. When we finished presenting and showed our project in motion, seeing the ball go in the back of the net was a very happy moment, and couldn't of done it without my team members.

Blueprint

Rube Goldberg Machine

Slide Show

Physics Content:

Velocity & Acceleration- Velocity Is the speed of something in a given direction and acceleration is an objects capacity to gain speed within a short time. We used velocity and acceleration in our Rube Goldberg machine to find the rate of speed from the marble rolling through two tubes and a marble coming off our pulley system, in steps 2 and 7.

Work & Force: Force is the push or pull in an object and work is the amount of energy put or used in an object. In steps 4 and 5, work and force are used when the pulley knocks over a lever and when the pulley hits three dominoes over.

Potential & Kinetic Energy: Potential energy is energy an object has due to being at a height or its position in a gravitational field and kinetic energy is energy due to motion. Potential and kinetic energy are used in all 4 of our 4 energy transfers.

Mechanical Advantage: Is how much easier a task is. In steps 1 and 3 we used mechanical advantage ideal when the marble was pushed by a wheel & axle and also when the marble rolls into the pulley system.

Simple Machines:

Wheel & Axle: A wheel attached to smaller axle that rotate together in which a force is transferred from one to the other. Our wheel & axle is used to knock over a marble in our 1st step.
Inclined Plane: A plane inclined at an angle to the horizontal. We used 4 wooden inclined planes that led from one to another. We used these in step 8.
Pulley System: Bringing a light object up and a heavy object down. We used this in steps 3,4,5 and 7. The marble would go through in a cup bring the cup down hitting dominoes, while the other cup is going upwards hits a lever.
Lever: A rigid bar resting on a pivot. We used our lever to tip a ball into a vertical tube that was hit from our pulley system. We used our lever in step 4.
Wedge: A piece of wood, metal, or some material having one thick and and tapering to a thin edge. We used our wedge to keep our soccer ball in place in our 10th step.

IMG_0041.MOV

Report abuse