Rube Goldberg Machine
Description
In the month that we built our Rube Goldberg machine, we had had lots of fun, challenging, and frustrating experiences. We started by brainstorming ideas of what our end result could be, and we drew a rough draft of our blueprint, later made neater and more official. On the first day we only had one piece of wood in place, and we thought we were not going to finish. That was until we started working on different things so we got things done faster. Unfortunately, there was a part where it was a lever with a golf ball… and after dropping it on the ground three times the golf ball came off every time and the wedge split on the side. Anyway, our end goal was to put Mentos in Diet Coke. You would pull a string attached to a little piece of wood, it would get pulled out, a pinball would roll down the ramp, hit a marble, both would go into a funnel, into a cup weight, his a lever, make a golf ball roll down the ramp, hit another lever which hit another golf ball, rolled down another ramp, hit a lego man, zip lined down, hit a car off to pull the Mentos' lock. Our original idea was to had the Diet Coke go through a clear tube into a cup, but we ended up just putting the bottle in a cup and having it go in the cup that way.
Reflection
In the end, I think my group worked well together. There were some uptight moments where we were all frustrated, but we were fine the next day. But there was a pulley on our machine that took us at least a week to figure out. that was the main problem. This made everyone feel like we were not going to be able to finish at this rate. On presentation night, we did what we could. We made the people laugh, wonder, and ask. Our machine worked about one and a half times that night. It worked flawlessly once and another time the Diet Coke barely made it over the top. I think the presentation night went very well and that it was a success.
Physics Concepts in Our Machine
Force: When the golf balls hit the levers and anything that pushed or pulled.
Velocity: When the car rolled down the ramp, it went a certain speed in a specific direction.
Mechanical Advantage: The pulleys made it easier to pull and took less force.
Work: When the marble in the cup on the pulley made it go down and hit a lever.
Potential Energy: When the pinball was being held by the wedge until the string was pulled.
Kinetic Energy: The transfers of energy between things such as the marble and the pinball, or the car and the lego man.
In the month that we built our Rube Goldberg machine, we had had lots of fun, challenging, and frustrating experiences. We started by brainstorming ideas of what our end result could be, and we drew a rough draft of our blueprint, later made neater and more official. On the first day we only had one piece of wood in place, and we thought we were not going to finish. That was until we started working on different things so we got things done faster. Unfortunately, there was a part where it was a lever with a golf ball… and after dropping it on the ground three times the golf ball came off every time and the wedge split on the side. Anyway, our end goal was to put Mentos in Diet Coke. You would pull a string attached to a little piece of wood, it would get pulled out, a pinball would roll down the ramp, hit a marble, both would go into a funnel, into a cup weight, his a lever, make a golf ball roll down the ramp, hit another lever which hit another golf ball, rolled down another ramp, hit a lego man, zip lined down, hit a car off to pull the Mentos' lock. Our original idea was to had the Diet Coke go through a clear tube into a cup, but we ended up just putting the bottle in a cup and having it go in the cup that way.
Reflection
In the end, I think my group worked well together. There were some uptight moments where we were all frustrated, but we were fine the next day. But there was a pulley on our machine that took us at least a week to figure out. that was the main problem. This made everyone feel like we were not going to be able to finish at this rate. On presentation night, we did what we could. We made the people laugh, wonder, and ask. Our machine worked about one and a half times that night. It worked flawlessly once and another time the Diet Coke barely made it over the top. I think the presentation night went very well and that it was a success.
Physics Concepts in Our Machine
Force: When the golf balls hit the levers and anything that pushed or pulled.
Velocity: When the car rolled down the ramp, it went a certain speed in a specific direction.
Mechanical Advantage: The pulleys made it easier to pull and took less force.
Work: When the marble in the cup on the pulley made it go down and hit a lever.
Potential Energy: When the pinball was being held by the wedge until the string was pulled.
Kinetic Energy: The transfers of energy between things such as the marble and the pinball, or the car and the lego man.