Rube Goldberg Machine

What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?

A Rube Goldberg machine is a device that takes a series of complicated steps in order to perform a very simple task at the end. Each step is connected to the one before it and this produces a domino effect. The machine was named after the American cartoonist Rube Goldberg who invented it back in 1914.

Our Task:

My group consisted of Jesse, Vinny, and I and our job was to build and design a Rube Goldberg machine that does a final task at the end. We had almost 16 days to complete this project and time went by quick. Our theme was Disneyland, so of course we had to include Disney throughout our whole project. The goal for this assignment was to create a working Rube Goldberg machine which had to have at least 10 steps, 4 energy transfers, 3 main elements of design, and 5 simple machines.

Theme:

Our Rube Goldberg machine is a Disneyland themed invention that consists of a variety of steps and simple machines to complete the end result of "fireworks" or glitter when finished. We incorporated a Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel, a bunch of drawings and pictures of characters and the park, and every step represented a new ride you would find around Disneyland. These main points helped us demonstrate our Disneyland theme in our machine.

3 Elements of Design:

  1. Ferris wheel - this represents EMPHASIS since it draw your eyes to it first and is our main piece on our board.
  2. Inclined planes, pulley, lever, and screw - they all represent MOVEMENT throughout the board because they can be found everywhere and create a steady flow to the whole project.
  3. Our whole board - it represents BALANCE since we filled every space up with similar pieces to even it out and create a balanced look towards our whole board.

10 Steps:

  1. Ferris Wheel - this is a wheel and axle. We start the machine by turning the axle with a certain amount of force which gets multiplied by the mechanical advantage to get the output force and puts the marble onto the ramp
  2. Roller Coaster - this is an inclined plane. The ball continues from the Ferris wheel onto the ramp and into the next step
  3. Drop Ride - this is a pulley. One side goes down making the other side go up. It then puts a ball into the next step.
  4. Waiting in Line - screw. This represents how the lines at Disneyland are ridiculously windy and long, so it goes in and out of our board and into the next step
  5. Turnstile - this is a lever. It represents a person going through the turnstile. It leads into the next roller coaster.
  6. Indiana Jones Ride Roller Coaster - inclined plane. Represents a ride. Goes to the next ride.
  7. Space Mountain Ride - Inclined plane which is a dark tube representing the ride when your in the space tunnel.
  8. Splash mountain - last inclined plane which drops the ball onto the final two steps.
  9. End of splash mountain ride - ball rolls off ramp and drops onto mouse trap which signals the trap to launch itself.
  10. Fireworks - as the mouse trap snaps, it pulls a string that’s connected to a wooden box filled with confetti. The string releases the confetti and that’s when the fireworks go off and your day at Disneyland is complete.

5 Simple Machines:

  1. Wheel and Axle- this is our first step and it's used with our Ferris wheel.
  2. Inclined Plane- this is used in our second step acting as a roller coaster.
  3. Pulley- this happens to be our third step and it acts as a drop ride on our machine.
  4. Screw- our fourth step uses a screw to make it seem as if you're in the never-ending lines at Disneyland.
  5. Lever- this is our fifth step which represents a person going through a turnstile that leads to the next ride.

4 Energy Transfers:

  1. On our Rube Goldberg machine, one of our energy transfers is when our ball bearing goes down the ramp at the beginning of our project. It goes from potential energy to kinetic energy.
  2. Another one of our energy transfers is when the ball bearing falls into our half tennis ball which pulls up the other tennis ball. This pulley is an example of potential energy to potential energy.
  3. From the tennis ball it releases a new starting ball that goes down a clear pipe, which would be our 3rd energy transfer. It goes from potential to kinetic energy.
  4. And our last energy transfer is when our ball comes out of the clear pipe and goes down the next ramp into a black tunnel. This is potential to kinetic energy since the ball never stops moving.

Construction Log:

The Days before building

Day 1: We brainstormed all kinds of ideas some of them bad, some of them good, and a lot in between. We then picked out the one we wanted to focus on.

Day 2: We learned about how to use certain tools in the maker’s space and started to make blueprints of our machine.

Day 3 (Official Day 1 of Building): We finished blueprinting our machine.


Construction log - in the maker’s space

Day 1: We designed our Rube Goldberg machines and made a blueprint

Day 2: We got a circled piece of wood for our Ferris wheel and started to draw out our plans with pencil

Day 3: We worked more on the Ferris wheel and drawing out our plans. We started the next step.

Day 4: On build day number 4 we built a pulley and a couple of ramps and started to label our board.

Day 5: When working on build day 5 we started to hot glue ramps and then we thought of an idea for our Ferris wheel and on our pulley we were going to use tennis balls as our carts.

Day 6: On build day 6 we started to drill in our board and we put a clear pipe in it so that it represents waiting in a line at Disneyland. Also we made a turnstile.

Day 7:We started to cut the tennis balls in half and now we glued a couple of more ramps.

Day 8: We got a lot of things done we screwed in 10 tennis balls and we made our pulley system then we screwed in a pipe.

Day 9: we made our final touches and we added our last part to the Rube Goldberg machines.


The Days after building :

Day 1: We started to work on our presentation, tried to plan the week ahead to make the best work of our time, and did more technical aspects on our machine, like tweaking things to make our pulley work.

Day 2: We continued more work on our presentation, spent most of our time on the actual machine and the last couple of steps.

Day 3: We did a lot for our presentation, and more on the machine.

Day 4: We finished major aspects of our machine and started major aspects of our presentation!


Blueprints:

Original:

Our original blueprint was definitely a stretch in ideas. We figured a few weeks was a lot of time and we would be able to finish everything we put on our blueprint. But no, that was not the case. Time flew by fast and we barely had anything on our board. This is when we knew we had to change it all up and make it more simple in order to finish in time. We took out the end plans with the wedge and the pool of water, and we had to make the pulley system much shorter because the wood board caused it to stop in the middle of its way up.

Final:

As you can tell, we made many changes on our final blueprint. We decided to alter many of our ideas because most of them were just too difficult to do in the short time span we had to finish. Both blueprints represented our Disneyland theme, however. This is because we made sure that our theme and project was still clear after every major change we fixed. (We may have lost our real final blueprint, so here is a sketch)

Video of Our Rube Goldberg Machine:

IMG_2399.mov

Calculations:

Velocity- the rate of covered distance in a direction. This is calculated by dividing change in distance over change in time. The unit is meters per second (m/s). Example: we found that 1.04m/1.47s = average velocity of 0.71 m/s for our marble going down our tube

Force- the push or pull on an object. This is calculated by multiplying mass by acceleration. The unit is Newtons (N). Example: in our Rube Goldberg machine, a marble exerted 0.06 N of force on a ramp, as shown to the right under acceleration

Work- is the amount of energy put into something. This is calculated by multiplying force by change in distance. The unit is Joules (J). Example: we found that the change in potential energy through one step was 0.9J and because work is equal to the change in potential energy, the work must be 0.9J too

Potential Energy- the energy an object has due to its position at a height or in a gravitational field. This is calculated by multiplying mass by acceleration due to gravity by height. The unit is Joules (J). Example: PE = 0.00836kg x 9.8m/s^2 x 1.23m = 0.10J. This is the PE of our marble at the very start of our Rube Goldberg machine

Kinetic Energy- is energy due to motion. This is calculated by multiplying 1/2 by mass by velocity^2. The unit is Joules (J). Example: KE = 1/2 x 0.004kg x 0.66m/s^2 = 0.001J. This is the KE for our small metal ball bearing in our machine

Acceleration- the rate of change in velocity (speeding up or slowing down). This is calculated by dividing the change in velocity over change in time. The unit is meters per second squared (m/s^2). There is also acceleration due to gravity, which is the acceleration of all objects in a gravitational field due to its force of gravity. This is always 9.8 m/s^2 when we are on Earth. Example: we used the acceleration due to gravity in the equation to find the force exerted by one of our marbles. 0.006kg x 9.8m/s^2 = 0.06N of force

Mechanical Advantage- the two types of MA are ideal and real. Ideal MA is how much further (more d) you have to push due to using a tool and this is calculated by by dividing distance(effort) over distance(time). While real MA is how much easier (less F) a tool makes a task, which is calculated by dividing Force(load) over Force(effort). There is no unit for this since it is a ratio. Example: the MA of our pulley is 1, but friction causes this number to be lower

Reflection:

Our Rube Goldberg journey was definitely like a roller coaster at Disneyland. We had our ups and downs but the whole time we were all having fun. Throughout this project I learned so much about me as a person and about physics, engineering, and the 6 C's. The 6 C's of the NUSD Graduate Profile are Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Character, Cultural Competence, and Conscientious Learning. I have grown in all of these stages because of this project.

Since this was a group task, my collaboration has definitely improved with the help of my group. They have taught me to do more things as a team and not just by myself, to have more fun during projects like these even if everything isn't going quite as planned, and they have even made me realize that everyone makes mistakes but we can learn from those mistakes so we shouldn't take them for granted.

My communication has also gotten better from this project. I am able to talk more with my group, other groups, and even the teacher. I have learned to share my ideas with everyone even if they aren't the best, I have learned to share my thoughts to my team about our project, and I have learned that communication is a huge part of group tasks. The reason why we were able to finish was because we realized that talking to each other helped us get on the same page which caused us to speed up the work load.

Another C that I have improved on is critical thinking. My group and I had to split up a few times in order to finish quicker and get more done, so in the times where I was independent I had to think by myself and if I had questions I would just have to critically think on my own and choose what's best for my group.

My character has also refined since I now know what it's like to be in the same group for almost a month. That group pushed me to my farthest limits some days but other days they were my highlight. They taught me to always stay positive and be happy for what we had. They are the ones who helped to build up my character.

Cultural competence is probably my least improved category of the 6 C's. I didn't change much in this section but I did learn to accept all of my faults and bloopers that I made during this journey. I have gotten way better at self-acceptance, which is a huge part in cultural competence.

And the final C that this project has helped me enhance in is conscientious learning. I am better at time management now and I am able to advocate for myself and take the blame for any of my mistakes and responsibilities. This project has changed the way I look at myself when it comes to doing work and I know that next time I will have to make goals for me to reach in order to achieve what is best for my team and I.