Welcome to my Rube Goldberg page. What is a Rube Goldberg you might ask? It is a series of complex steps that work together to achieve a simple goal, in my case raising a flag. To go about this project, our teacher placed us in groups of four. We started out with three days to brainstorm and construct a blueprint for our Rube Goldberg. Then we were given nine days to construct our machine using various materials including wood, PVC piping, and metal. After construction, we had just three days to calculate all the physics of the machine, and to get ready to present.
For our Rube Goldberg project we had to explain the physics of each step and the engineering concepts of our machine. In our project we used acceleration, mechanical advantage, work, force, kinetic and potential energy, and toppling. We also used five out of the six simple machines including: inclined plane, lever, screw, wheel and axle, and a pulley. We did not use the wedge because it was to hard to incorporate into our machine. Physics concepts: acceleration: Acceleration is a change in velocity. It is measured in meters per second squared. We used acceleration to calculate how fast our marbles were accelerated down inclined planes. mechanical advantage: Mechanical advantage is how many times easier a task is with the help of a machine. We found the mechanical advantage of various inclined planes. work: Work is the amount of energy used to complete a task. Work is measured in joules. We found the work of a pulley done to raise a flag. force: Force is the push or pull on an object. Force causes a change in motion. It is measured in Newtons. We calculated the force of a domino falling. kinetic energy: Potential and kinetic energy are equal. Kinetic energy is the energy something has due to its motion. You can find kinetic energy by calculating half of the mass multiplied by the velocity squared of an object. We found the kinetic energy of a marble. potential energy: Potential energy is the energy something has due to its heightPotential energy can be found by usingSince potential energy is equal to kinetic; you can always find potential energy by just using an object's kinetic energy. We also found the potential energy of a marble on various heights. toppling: Toppling is when an object's center of gravity falls off of the area of its base, causing the object to topple over. We used dominoes in our Rube Goldberg machine to demonstrate toppling. Simple Machines: Simple machines are machines that are used to make tasks easier measured in mechanical advantage. Mechanical advantage is how many times easier something is with the use of a simple machine. For the ideal mechanical advantage you can use the distance of effort divided by the distance of the load. Inclined Plane: Basically a ramp. Effort is the distance of ramp and load is height of ramp. Lever: Distance from input area to fulcrum is the effort and the load is distance from output force to fulcrum. An example of a lever is a playground see-saw. Screw: Effort is circumference of screw and load is the height between the threads. Wheel and Axle: There are two ways to place effort and load. Effort and load can both be the circumference of the wheel or could be circumference of the axle. So it would be load=circumference and effort=axle or load=axle and effort=circumference. A toy car has two sets of wheel and axles that make the wheels turn when pushed. Pulley: To find mechanical advantage just count the number of loops in the pulley system. Boats use pulleys to raise and lower cargo. |
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Reflection: After presenting our Rube Goldberg machines I have realized many things. One of which is time management is very important. We were given a very short amount of time to work on this project and we did not use it well. At the start, we made good progress but throughout the last days we struggled with the little amount of time to finish everything. One thing I would do differently if given a second chance would be to plan out everything using a calendar. I would organize certain goals to be met in the construction and calculations of my machine. Also, I would need to make sure everyone in my group would be on task and contributing. This was something my group struggled to do successfully. Without organized group management, our group would tend to work unproductively and accomplish few things day to day. This caused us to finish at the last minute, with little room to tweak anything that did not work.