The Blue Crew's Rube Goldberg
To make this Rube Goldberg, we started out by making a design for the what our group wanted to build. We took into account all of the simple machines and included all six into out design.
Once we had our blueprint set, we started to construct the project. It took a lot of work, readjusting, building, and fine-tuning all of the steps. Once we had all of the steps build and in place, we began to do test runs.
The test runs were very difficult at first because not much was working. We had to work step by step from the beginning to set all of the steps perfectly. Finally,we had all of the steps in order and things were looking great. (video below of a test run.)
Step by Step Analysis
Step 1: Our first step in the Rube Goldberg is to use a wheel and axle to push a marble. The wheel and axle works by pulling a weight tied to an axle down. This causes a peg attached to the axle to spin and push the marble.
Step 2: The marble goes down a screw.
Step 3: The marble then rolls down an inclined plane and hits a weight.
Step 4: The weight falls onto a lever and causes the lever to move up.
Step 5: There is a pin on the other end of the lever that pops a water balloon. The pin popping the balloon is a wedge.
Step 6: The water balloon pops and the water released from the balloon falls onto another lever, causing the lever to activate.
Step 7: The lever that the water is now on hits a class 2 lever and causes a golf ball to roll down the lever.
Step 8: The golf ball falls into a cup and makes a pulley move down.
Step 9: The pulley pulls a wedge that is holding back a marble and allows the marble to roll down an incline plane.
Step 10: The marble runs into a pencil and the pencil goes down another incline plane.
Step 11: The pencil rolls into a hand waiting. We have dispensed a pencil!
Physics of our Rube Goldberg
Step 1: The Mechanical Advantage of the wheel and axle is 1/19.
Step 2: Potential Energy of the marble as it goes down the screw is 0.0211 J.
Step 3: The velocity of the ball rolling down the inclined plane is 0.191 m/s.
Step 4: The weight is pushed off of the edge by a marble with a force of 0.49 N. The weight then falls with a force of 4.9 N.
Step 5: The mechanical advantage of the wedge (pin) that pops the water balloon is 400.
Step 6: The water falls out of the balloon and into another cup.The water falls with a force of 1.274 N.
Step 7: The acceleration of the golf ball is 0.407 m/s^2.
Step 8: Mechanical advantage of the pulley is 1.
Step 9: The Potential Energy of the marble is 0.00882 J.
Step 10: Momentum of the marble is 0.015 kg m/s.
Step 11: The Potential Energy of the pencil is 0.006174 J.
What I learned
By completing this project, I learned a few new skills that I am glad I have learned. One of the big things that I learned more about is decision making. Our group had a lot of great ideas coming from our group members and some times we could not decide. We all thought that we had the best ideas and it was not easy for any of us to see our idea not being used in the project. But we overcame this difficulty by listening to that person's idea and then voting on what we should do as a group. This largely effected our group and helped us make our Rube Goldberg a ton better.
To make this Rube Goldberg, we started out by making a design for the what our group wanted to build. We took into account all of the simple machines and included all six into out design.
Once we had our blueprint set, we started to construct the project. It took a lot of work, readjusting, building, and fine-tuning all of the steps. Once we had all of the steps build and in place, we began to do test runs.
The test runs were very difficult at first because not much was working. We had to work step by step from the beginning to set all of the steps perfectly. Finally,we had all of the steps in order and things were looking great. (video below of a test run.)
Step by Step Analysis
Step 1: Our first step in the Rube Goldberg is to use a wheel and axle to push a marble. The wheel and axle works by pulling a weight tied to an axle down. This causes a peg attached to the axle to spin and push the marble.
Step 2: The marble goes down a screw.
Step 3: The marble then rolls down an inclined plane and hits a weight.
Step 4: The weight falls onto a lever and causes the lever to move up.
Step 5: There is a pin on the other end of the lever that pops a water balloon. The pin popping the balloon is a wedge.
Step 6: The water balloon pops and the water released from the balloon falls onto another lever, causing the lever to activate.
Step 7: The lever that the water is now on hits a class 2 lever and causes a golf ball to roll down the lever.
Step 8: The golf ball falls into a cup and makes a pulley move down.
Step 9: The pulley pulls a wedge that is holding back a marble and allows the marble to roll down an incline plane.
Step 10: The marble runs into a pencil and the pencil goes down another incline plane.
Step 11: The pencil rolls into a hand waiting. We have dispensed a pencil!
Physics of our Rube Goldberg
Step 1: The Mechanical Advantage of the wheel and axle is 1/19.
Step 2: Potential Energy of the marble as it goes down the screw is 0.0211 J.
Step 3: The velocity of the ball rolling down the inclined plane is 0.191 m/s.
Step 4: The weight is pushed off of the edge by a marble with a force of 0.49 N. The weight then falls with a force of 4.9 N.
Step 5: The mechanical advantage of the wedge (pin) that pops the water balloon is 400.
Step 6: The water falls out of the balloon and into another cup.The water falls with a force of 1.274 N.
Step 7: The acceleration of the golf ball is 0.407 m/s^2.
Step 8: Mechanical advantage of the pulley is 1.
Step 9: The Potential Energy of the marble is 0.00882 J.
Step 10: Momentum of the marble is 0.015 kg m/s.
Step 11: The Potential Energy of the pencil is 0.006174 J.
What I learned
By completing this project, I learned a few new skills that I am glad I have learned. One of the big things that I learned more about is decision making. Our group had a lot of great ideas coming from our group members and some times we could not decide. We all thought that we had the best ideas and it was not easy for any of us to see our idea not being used in the project. But we overcame this difficulty by listening to that person's idea and then voting on what we should do as a group. This largely effected our group and helped us make our Rube Goldberg a ton better.