Project Description
A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption, invention, or apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered to perform a simple task in a complicated fashion, usually including a chain reaction. We had 15 days to plan, build, and make a presentation for our very own Rube Goldberg machine. My group's project had the end result of releasing balloons into the air, so we gave our machine a birthday party theme and named it The Party Machine. Down below, I have a slow motion video of our machine working and a slideshow that will include our steps, simple machines, energy transfers, progress log, and changes we made to our project.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption, invention, or apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered to perform a simple task in a complicated fashion, usually including a chain reaction. We had 15 days to plan, build, and make a presentation for our very own Rube Goldberg machine. My group's project had the end result of releasing balloons into the air, so we gave our machine a birthday party theme and named it The Party Machine. Down below, I have a slow motion video of our machine working and a slideshow that will include our steps, simple machines, energy transfers, progress log, and changes we made to our project.
Concepts
mechanical advantage: the ratio of the force produced by a machine to the force applied to it, used in assessing the performance of a machine (N) The lever in step 5 and the pulley in step 3 are both examples of mechanical advantage.
potential energy: the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to others, stresses within itself, electric charge, and other factors (J) The transfer of potential to kinetic energy happens when the marble rolls down the series of incline planes.
kinetic energy: energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion (J) When the weight sits on the ledge, it has potential energy due to its position. Then when the domino knocks the weight off the edge, the potential energy converts to kinetic.
force: strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement (J) Force was used in all of our steps.
mass: a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape (kg) The more mass there is the more force it exerts. The mass of our toy car was 0.028N.
acceleration: increase in the rate or speed of something (m/s) Acceleration is found in many steps of the Rube Goldberg Machine. For instance, the ball rolling down the inclined planes shows acceleration.
work: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result (J) Work is done on the birthday present when the pulley pulls it up.
speed: the rate at which someone or something is able to move or operate (m/s) The birthday cake wheel and axle spins at an approximate speed of 2 m/s during the first 10 spins.
velocity: the speed of something in a given direction (m/s) When the marble rolls down the inclined plane, it shows velocity because the marble is going a certain speed a certain direction.
mechanical advantage: the ratio of the force produced by a machine to the force applied to it, used in assessing the performance of a machine (N) The lever in step 5 and the pulley in step 3 are both examples of mechanical advantage.
potential energy: the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to others, stresses within itself, electric charge, and other factors (J) The transfer of potential to kinetic energy happens when the marble rolls down the series of incline planes.
kinetic energy: energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion (J) When the weight sits on the ledge, it has potential energy due to its position. Then when the domino knocks the weight off the edge, the potential energy converts to kinetic.
force: strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement (J) Force was used in all of our steps.
mass: a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape (kg) The more mass there is the more force it exerts. The mass of our toy car was 0.028N.
acceleration: increase in the rate or speed of something (m/s) Acceleration is found in many steps of the Rube Goldberg Machine. For instance, the ball rolling down the inclined planes shows acceleration.
work: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result (J) Work is done on the birthday present when the pulley pulls it up.
speed: the rate at which someone or something is able to move or operate (m/s) The birthday cake wheel and axle spins at an approximate speed of 2 m/s during the first 10 spins.
velocity: the speed of something in a given direction (m/s) When the marble rolls down the inclined plane, it shows velocity because the marble is going a certain speed a certain direction.
Reflection
Making our Rube Goldberg project was a lot of hard work. My teammates and I spent as much time as we can on them that includes working on them during our lunch time and after school. I think our project was amazing, complex and good looking at the same time. We definitely would have made our machine more complex if we had more time. I made a Rube Goldberg machine in 8th grade which I thought was the coolest thing ever until now. I am extremely proud of my teammates and I for our accomplishment. Each day we accomplished something new. One step that took us a while to figure out was our birthday cake wheel and axle because it included a motor that would act up at times. We changed many steps to our project when you compare it to our old when because at first, we tried to add as many steps as we can to the machine but when we were actually building, we realized we didn't have as much room as we thought we had. For more info on this, you can look at our comparison between our old and new schematics in our slideshow.
I learned many things while making our machine. I learned that I was very good with power tools. Before this, I have never used a power tool in my life but when I started using it I realized I like using them and it was fun. I am definitely looking forward to using more power tools in the future projects. Another thing I learned was how to calculate force, speed, velocity, mechanical advantage, etc. This requires an enormous amount of algebra and thinking. I also learned that I was good at giving ideas. One idea I thought of was our end result which is releasing balloons. Sadly, we don't have balloons in our video. I also realized how hard managing time is. On some of our last days we were literally dying from all the work we put into the project because we didn't focus only on the complexity of steps but also the beauty of it. The presentation of our machine was easy for me because my speaking skills have improved drastically because I am in speech and debate club. This project was an amazing experience because I learned new things.
I'd like to thank my teammates on making the Rube Goldberg machine with me and making it excellent. For more info and other's perspectives, check out my teammates websites provided below.
David: http://davidsolissanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Jessica: http://jessicastewartsanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Jeffrey: http://jeffreysutersanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Toni: http://tonispinasanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Making our Rube Goldberg project was a lot of hard work. My teammates and I spent as much time as we can on them that includes working on them during our lunch time and after school. I think our project was amazing, complex and good looking at the same time. We definitely would have made our machine more complex if we had more time. I made a Rube Goldberg machine in 8th grade which I thought was the coolest thing ever until now. I am extremely proud of my teammates and I for our accomplishment. Each day we accomplished something new. One step that took us a while to figure out was our birthday cake wheel and axle because it included a motor that would act up at times. We changed many steps to our project when you compare it to our old when because at first, we tried to add as many steps as we can to the machine but when we were actually building, we realized we didn't have as much room as we thought we had. For more info on this, you can look at our comparison between our old and new schematics in our slideshow.
I learned many things while making our machine. I learned that I was very good with power tools. Before this, I have never used a power tool in my life but when I started using it I realized I like using them and it was fun. I am definitely looking forward to using more power tools in the future projects. Another thing I learned was how to calculate force, speed, velocity, mechanical advantage, etc. This requires an enormous amount of algebra and thinking. I also learned that I was good at giving ideas. One idea I thought of was our end result which is releasing balloons. Sadly, we don't have balloons in our video. I also realized how hard managing time is. On some of our last days we were literally dying from all the work we put into the project because we didn't focus only on the complexity of steps but also the beauty of it. The presentation of our machine was easy for me because my speaking skills have improved drastically because I am in speech and debate club. This project was an amazing experience because I learned new things.
I'd like to thank my teammates on making the Rube Goldberg machine with me and making it excellent. For more info and other's perspectives, check out my teammates websites provided below.
David: http://davidsolissanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Jessica: http://jessicastewartsanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Jeffrey: http://jeffreysutersanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html
Toni: http://tonispinasanmarin.weebly.com/rube-goldberg-machine.html