Rube Goldberg Machine

What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?

A Rube Goldberg machine indirectly uses simple machines, energy transfers, and design in a series of steps that complete one simple task. It is named after the famous cartoonist and inventor, Rube Goldberg (pictured to the left). The most famous machine made by Rube Goldberg was the self-operating napkin, pictured above, in the title.

Evidence of Work

Our Task:

For this project, Akio Suzuki, Zachary Ellinthorpe, and I were faced with the task to distantly build a themed machine including at least 15 steps, 5 simple machines, and 4 energy transfers. For our theme, we ironically chose a boy getting ready and going to school. Also, this machine had to complete a simple task at the end. To complete this project distantly, our group had to have a ton of communication. We had to be constantly talking about what we were doing and how we were going to do it. Below, I have included our construction log and what we did each week.

Week 1 - Initial blueprints, finding a theme, start building the beginning steps in each of our parts
Week 2 - Final blueprints, building the rest of our parts
Week 3 - Calculations, finalizing our machines, videoing
Week 4 - Editing the videos together, making the presentation

Our Final Product:

I was very pleased with our final product. Although it took a lot of work, collaboration, and communication to do this separately, we pulled through and succeeded! We stuck perfectly with our theme and followed our final blueprints the best we could. For the theme we even made up an imaginary kid to "go through his day" with him. In the machine, the kid gets ready for school, goes to school, and staples a paper, which is the ending simple task. Within our machine, we have a total of 13 simple machines, countless energy transfers, and 3 elements of design. In our presentation below, we explained all of the steps, the 4 main energy transfers, the elements of design, our theme, blueprints, and our calculations. The video is also played 3 times in the presentation in slides 4, 12, and 41. I would have included the direct video, yet I was unable to put it in because I do not own the file.

Rube Goldberg Presentation:

Going to School Rube Goldberg presentation

Major Concepts

Velocity (v) :

the rate of covered distance in a certain direction
measured in meters/second (m/s)
v = d/t velocity = distance/time
final velocity is twice the speed of average velocity
example : In step 7, the average velocity of the marble rolling down the ramp was 0.7 m/s; the final velocity was 1.4 m/s

Acceleration (a) :

the rate of change in velocity (speeding up/slowing down)
measured in meters/seconds squared (m/s^2)
a = v/t acceleration = velocity/time
example : In step 11, the acceleration of the marble rolling down the ramp was 0.97 m/s^2

Force (F) :

the push or pull on an object that usually causes a change in motion
measured in Newtons (N)
F = ma force = mass*acceleration
example : There was a force of 0.225 N being exerted onto the load of the pulley in step 9

Work (W) :

the amount of energy put into doing something
measured in Joules (J)
W = Fd work = force*distance
example : If you wanted to find the work of pushing a 5N box 3m, you would multiply the force (5) by the distance (3) to get a final answer of 15J

Potential Energy (PE) :

stored up energy that is ready to be used
measured in Joules (J)
PE = mgh potential energy = mass*acceleration due to gravity (9.8)*height
example : In step 6, the car has 0.017 J of stored up potential energy

Kinetic Energy (KE) :

energy that is used in motion
measured in Joules (J)
KE = 0.5mv^2 kinetic energy = 0.5*mass*velocity squared
example : In step 11, at the end of the ramp, the ball has about 0.001 J of kinetic energy in it

Mechanical Advantage (MA) :

how much easier a tool makes a task
no real unit, just numbers
MA(r) = F(l)/F(e) mechanical advantage (real) = force(load) / force(effort)
example : In step 9, the pulley has a mechanical advantage of 2. This means that the pulley makes it 2 times easier to pull up/down the load

Simple Machines:

Simple machines are extremely useful and most of what made up our entire project. There are 6 types of simple machines: lever, pulley, wedge, inclined plane, screw, and wheel and axle. For our project, we had to use at least 5, so the only thing we didn't have was a screw. These machines helped lead the ball through the machine. What each machine does :

lever - The lever in our machine was used as a catapult to launch a ball to a new place
pulley - Our 2 pulleys released other objects that carried the machine along
wedge - Our 2 wedges kept our objects in place until we wanted them to be removed
inclined plane - The multiple inclined planes in our machine were used as ramps to transport the balls to the next step
wheel & axle - We used a car to show this simple machine. When released, the car shot forward and hit another object into motion

Blueprints:

Everyone in our group made initial and final blueprints for our parts of the machine. One of the main constructive criticisms the judges gave us was that we needed to put our scale on the blueprints and we needed lengths, widths, and heights. Unfortunately, I took the machine apart, so I am now unable to show these things. Below I have included my initial and final blueprints for my part of the machine. All of the initial and final blueprints from our whole group is in the slideshow if you wanted to look at those.

Initial Blueprint

As you can see, this is just a beginning sketch and just has the basic ideas I wanted to include in the machine.

Final Blueprint

This is a much better representation of this part of the machine. I included many new ramps, more definition with my ideas, and a new pulley. If I had realized I needed to put scales and measurements on the blueprint, this would have been a very accurate portrayal of the machine.

Reflection:

All in all, I think our group did a really good with this project and I am pleased with my part of the machine. To do this project distantly, our group especially had to have a lot of communication, collaboration, creativity, leadership, organization, and time management.

I think I did best in the communication aspect of the project. At all times, my teammates and I knew what each of us were doing and where we were at with their machines. This was really beneficial for us because it allowed us to collaborate easier knowing what our other group mates were doing. In the beginning days, this component was slightly hard for us because we had no idea who each other were. Yet it wasn't long until we were all good friends. I think our groups positivity and willingness made this pretty easy for us. In the mornings, I would try to get everyone going by asking what everyone had for breakfast, how we were feeling, and what our goals for today were. Also, if everyone was a little sleepy, I would play some pump up music to get the day started well. Although some people might consider this a "waste of time" or that we were "off task", this strengthened our bond and made it much easier to work as a group. This also helped us to stay organized, on track, and happy.

Another area I think I excelled in was the leadership aspect. I love taking the lead when it comes to most things. I enjoy encouraging others and pushing them to be their best. I enjoy helping my group mates and I usually put them before me. I am direct and I always tell the truth. These characteristics helped me succeed in the leadership part of group. For example, as I said above with the communication, I am not afraid to be the one to speak up and get things going. I created trust between our group and I always checked in with my group to see if anyone needed help or any ideas with anything. I was transparent with my group and did whatever my group needed me to do.

On the other hand, I also struggled with a few things when doing this project. It is a lot harder for me to collaborate online, rather than in school where I can really tell what's going on and how everything is going. I am very willing to accept my flaws and reflect on them because I know that it will make me a better teammate and person overall.

Contrary to what I said above, I really need to work on my leadership skills. I know you might be thinking "Wait, I thought she just said she was a good leader? I'm confused..". Don't worry, I'll explain it. I really think that I was a born leader. I always take the lead, so when it came to this project, I of course did the same and what I've always done. Yet as I am reflecting about the role I took in this project, I've realized that I can be really controlling. I always want to do everything my way. Yes, I always encourage new ideas and perspectives, but in the end, I feel like I always end up going my own way and not really listening to what others said. For the next project, I want to get better at listening to others and finding more of a compromise between what I think we should do and others opinions. Also, I always try to help everyone else and be super encouraging. This means that while I'm spending time trying to make sure everyone else is doing good, I seem to forget about myself. I need to do just as good as a job as I'm encouraging others to do. My goal for the next project is to listen more and talk less, and assume an equal role as everyone else to be less controlling.

Sort of going along with what I said before, sometimes I feel embarrassed to ask questions or to need help. This sort of ties into my self consciousness. If I don't understand something, a lot of the time it is hard for me to speak up and ask someone for help because I don't want to get judged by others or make myself seem "stupid" even though I know that it is normal to have questions and make mistakes sometimes. In the next project, I want to be more open with my group and not feel ashamed when I don't know what's going on or if I need help.

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