Rube Goldberg machine

The first STEM project is called the Rube Goldberg machine. The point of the machine is to make the mechanics of a simple task complex using a machine with 5+ simple machines. My group chose a Halloween trick or treating theme. Our 5 simple machines that were used are a pulley,  a wedge, an incline plane, a screw, and a wheel. The 3 elements of design we chose are Balance, Unity, and Movement. For balance, the colors balanced each other out, and they were Halloween colors to match the theme.  For Unity, the simple machines we chose and placed so the marbles could keep moving. For movement, the whole machines moves fluidly and in sync. One movement caused the next movement.

Calculations and steps

Step 1- Remove wedge 

Force- 0.014N

Step 2- marble rolls down the ramp

PE 0.007J

KE 0.0011J

Step 3- marble falls onto scale

Mass going down > Mass going up

Step 4- second marble is released

PE 0.002J

KE 0.0008J

Step 5- marble rolls down funnel

MA=3.26

Step 6- marble rolls around screw

MA= 3.2

Step 7- marble rolls out of screw and down ramp

PE 0.0031J

KE 0.002J

Step 8- ball rolls into ball

Force=0.0392J

Step 9-  ball rolls down last ramp

Acceleration= 0.8m/s^2

Step 10- ball rolls into scale 2

Force=0.0392J

Step 11- other side goes up, last marble is released

PE to KE

PE=0.0011J

KE=0.001J