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What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
A Rube Goldberg Machine is a contraption that is made up of multiple chain reaction steps to complete a simple task. Rube Goldberg was an engineer, author, and cartoonist, who created the Rube Goldberg machine.
Task
Our class was assigned to create a Rube Goldberg project, which consisted of 10 steps, 5 simple machines, and 3 elements of design.
Final Project
Our group created a vending machine themed Rube Goldberg project. Throughout the 10 days of building, my group and I created a blueprint for the board, built the board, and finally did the calculations of the board. I helped to cut and attach most of the pieces that the machine contained to create the 10 steps, as well as all the physics calculations that we attached to our slide show.
Rube Goldberg PresVideo of our Working Project
Our final blueprints to our project with the steps at the bottom.
Physics used in the machine
Velocity(v): Velocity is the rate which an object changes in a certain direction. Velocity used in our machine was in the third step. The velocity of the ball when it rolls into the pulley is 0.03 meters per second.
Acceleration(a): Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity in a direction. Either speeding up or slowing down. An example of acceleration was used in step 8. During step 8, when the ball hits the lever, the lever moves at 9.8 meters per second.
Work(W): Work is the amount of energy you put into doing something. An example of work in our machine is the pulley exerted work when it was pulled down by the ball. In return the counter weight of the pulley was pulled up and the pulley was pushed down.
Potential Energy(PE): Potential energy is the stored energy an object has due to its position. Our machine had lots of potential energy components. In step one, the car is held up by the wedge, which has potential energy. Another form of potential is the top of the pulley before the ball rolls into it.
Kinetic energy(KE): Is the energy of a moving object. An example of kinetic energy in our project is when the lever tilts by the ball. When the lever is stationary, the potential energy is stored, but when the ball hits it and tilts it converts into kinetic energy.
Mechanical Advantage(MA): There are two types of mechanical advantage, ideal and real. Mechanical advantage ideal is the theoretical greatest mechanical advantage a machine can have and real is the actual mechanical advantage a machine has. An example of the mechanical advantage ideal on our machine is in the first step, the wedge has an MA ideal of 1.
Simple machines: In our project, we used five simple machines. In step one we used a wedge to hold up the hot wheels car. In step two the car rolls down a ramp. In step four the ball falls into the pulley which then moves the pulley down. In step six the ball rolls into a wheel and axle which moves the ball down into step seven which is the lever.
Reflection
Throughout this project, I have learned a lot about my self both in the way I collaborate in a group, as well as my critical thinking in hands on learning. I believe that my collaboration with my group to create the project went very well. Everyday I would set a personal goal, as well as a goal that my group as a whole would need to complete. Setting those goals made our production with the project go smoothly, with little to no road blocks. This made us be able to complete the project with lots of time to work on our slides and physics that went with it. Another part of my project that I worked well with was my critical thinking. Since this was my first ever engineering project, I had to use skills that I never knew I had. Throughout the project there were lots of trial and error. This taught me to make quick and good decisions on what to do if something didnt end up working. For example, the pulley on step 4 took multiple designs and builds until the ball would roll into it every time.
During this project I also learned about some things I need to work on. One of them is communication. I have always been a leader while working in groups, which is good, but could also be bad thing. Multiple times throughout the project I have caught myself being too much of a boss to my group mates, while not taking into consideration on how I am treating them. As the year goes on I wish to get better on my communication in group projects in and out of stem. Another thing that I need to work on in my character. I found that group projects can create stress, because I simply cant be doing everything my way, which can make my character be less nice and more angry. I need to learn to trust my group mates in what they are doing, so I can focus on myself, which will make my overall character better.
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