Rube Goldberg

A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction–type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.

Overview

Throughout the course of 4 weeks, me and 3 others worked on our first STEM project which was creating our own Rube Goldberg machines with a theme that we chose. My team picked a soccer theme for our RG, so a ball would start at the middle of the board, go all around the board, and end by dropping into a goal at the end. After we finished on our machines we presented our machines on Rube Goldberg night with our calculations for each of our steps. 

Presentation & Script                         

Video:

Blueprint: Initial & Final 

Content

For our Rube Goldberg machine we had to have the following physics components:

1. Velocity: the speed of something in a given direction. In step 7 we calculate v = 0.6 m/s as the velocity for the small lead ball.

2. Acceleration: the rate of change in velocity (speeding up or slowing down).  It is shown when the ball starts to descends the different ramps

3. Force: Force is a push or pull on an object. There are multiple ways force is used in our board, like in step 2 where the force used to hit the lever is F=0.055 N   

4. Work: Work is the energy put into something. It is shown by the marbles going around the board.

5. Potential Energy: energy an object has by being at a height or position in a gravitational field. We have PE in multiple spots like steps 1 (PE= 0.09 J), 4(PE= 0.068 J), 9(PE= 0.008 J), and 11(PE= 0.094)

6. Kinetic Energy: energy due to motion. An example of KE in our board is step 8 with the KE = 0.044 J

7. Mechanical Advantage: How much easier a tool makes something or how much farther you get using it. In step 5 we have a pulley with a MAadvantage = 1

8. Simple Machines: any basic mechanical device used to apply a force. We needed five simple machines for our board so we had: Inclined planes, pulley, levers, wheel & axle, and a screw.  

9. Blueprints: a detailed plan of action. We had an initial and final blueprint. Our initial blueprint helped us plan where everything was going to be before the project started. We still ended up changing some of the things in the end bule prints are great to get the basics down.

Reflection:

This was our first STEM project and through this project I learned many new things to bring with me for my next four years of my stem journey. I had learned how to better work as a team by finding new ways to working out disagreement and communication with others. And learned more about physics concepts that I had not known before, such as the different formulas and how to calculate them. 

While I had worked with constructing things before this, I feel this project still helped me to work on my construction skills more and get to work with people I haven't before. I do wish I had been here for every day of the project but I was gone for a two days of the project due to having to be away for a bit but my teammates did great with getting stuff done for our project so when i got back we could continue to get stuff done in time for Rube Goldberg night.