Rube Goldberg Machine

The first project for STEM Marin engineering student is a Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg machine is a complex set of steps put together to complete a simple task. Our project was to plan, build, and present a Rube Goldberg machine. We had six week to plan and create our machine. My group decided to use a chain reaction of events that ended with unveiling a burrito. The machine its self was designed to represent making a burrito. We had about a week to brainstorm, plan, and create blueprints for our machine. We then had nine days to build our machine with days added on to work on our presentation and add final details to our machine if needed. 

The machine is started with a golf ball rolling down a ramp. It is continued with the golf ball hitting a piece of wood under a PVC pipe holding small marbles, when the wood is hit it moves out from under the pipe releasing the marbles. The marbles then fall into a plinko board. After the plinko board the marbles continue into a funnel that goes into a screw. When coming out of the screw the marbles fall into a cup attached to a pulley. The pulley pulls on a lever with a cup with marbles on it. It also pulls up an "avocado tree". When the pulley pulls on the lever in rises allowing the cup to fall over into another funnel. From the funnel the marbles fall into another cup attached to a pulley system. The pulley spins a wheel and axle that ends by revealing the burrito.

Our machine's theme was making and unveiling a burrito. The golf ball is representative of a chicken egg, which is representative of chicken in a burrito. The PVC pipe is meant to represent a bean pod with the marbles inside being the beans. Next is the avocado tree that represents guacamole. Then the cup on the lever, the cup has marbles in it, the marbles represent rice. Finally the cover is lifted from the burrito. For our live presentation a real burrito was placed at the end.

Simple Machines

The first simple machine is an incline plane more commonly known as a ramp. A ramp p

The second simple machine is a screw.

The third simple machine is a pulley.

The fourth simple machine is a lever.

The fifth simple machine is a wheel and axel. 

Construction Log

Day 1: Building the ramp

Day 2: Attaching the ramp to the board, planning out plinko board and putting in screws

Day 3: Finished putting in screws for plinko board, planned out bean pod and first pulley

Day 4: Finished plinko board and started and finished bean pod

Day 5: Planned and started on screw, planned avocado tree pulley

Day 6: Started avocado tree pulley

Day 7: Finished avocado tree pulley, started building lever and planned funnel system

Day 8: Built funnel system and planned out second pulley

Day 9: Built second pulley system, wheel and axel, and burrito unveiling

Incline Plane- The first calculation in the machine is for the incline plane more commonly know as a ramp. It has a potential energy of 49.51 J at the top.

Bean Pod- The second calculation in our machine is the "bean pod". The potential energy is 465.69 J. 

Screw: The third calculation is the screw. The potential energy is 370 J.

Pulley: The fourth calculation is the avocado tree that has a minimum potential energy of 52.92 J.

Lever: The fifth calculation is the lever it has a potential energy of 0.14 J.

Pulley: The second pulley has a potential energy of 84 J.

Wheel and axel: The wheel and axel has a mechanical disadvantage of 3.5 and a potential energy of 84 J.

Reflection

During the project I learned to collaborate with others more. To be able to complete the machine on time my group needed to work well together and listen to everyones questions or concerns about the machine and the build process. During the project I learned to collaborate more with everyone in my group. Communication was also very important to the success of my group. We all had to work together and listen to each other because everyone had ideas about the design and how the machine could and would be built. During the project I learned to listen more and how to express my feelings to the group. During the project there where many different parts that all had to come together to complete the project. The first part was designing the machine. Critical thinking was required for it because not everything was as simple as truly making a burrito but also how each step would effect and work with the next step and how to represent each ingredient and part. I still need to work on critical thinking and thinking outside the box. Another part of the project was making the presentation that required conscientious learning which I need to work on.