Overview
Taking a picture. That is what our Rube Goldberg machine did. Our group of me, Anthony, Bella, and Donnie made this project in approximately 25 hours. The requirements were that you have at least 10 steps and that you have at least 5 of the 6 simple machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that performs a very simple task in a very complicated and over-engineered manner.
Taking a picture. That is what our Rube Goldberg machine did. Our group of me, Anthony, Bella, and Donnie made this project in approximately 25 hours. The requirements were that you have at least 10 steps and that you have at least 5 of the 6 simple machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that performs a very simple task in a very complicated and over-engineered manner.
The Picture Machine
Our machine was called the Picture Machine because the end product was taking a picture with a Polaroid camera. The Picture Machine had 11 steps and included all 6 of the simple machines. The simple machines are: wheel and axle, wedge, inclined plane, screw, pulley, and the lever.
Steps to the Picture Machine
Step 1: A person started it off by pulling on the lever which has a marble on it. The lever did 3.25 Joules of work.
Step 2: The marble rolles down an inclined plane and into a cup with a hole in the bottom allowing the ball to drop. The velocity of the marble was .98 meters per second.
Step 3: Once the marble drops from the cup, it rolls down an inclined plane. The mechanical advantage of the inclined plane is 2.83.
Step 4: The marble then rolls into a cup attatched to a pulley system with a wedge on the other end. The mechanical advantage of the pulley is 1.
Step 5: A golfball is held in place by a wedge and once the pulley system is activated the wedge will lift. The force of the wedge is 0.0475 Newtons.
Step 6: The golfball rolls down another inclined plane knocking over a cup of water. The acceleration of the golfball is 1.11 meters per second squared.
Step 7: The water from the cup flows down a screw into a cup attached to a pulley system.
Step 8: The cup pulls on the sting which activates the second pulley system lifting popsicle sticks. The mechanical advantage of the pulley system is 3.
Step 9: The popsicle sticks pushes a pinwheel lever that releases a marble. The mechanical advantage of the pinwheel is 3.
Step 10: The marble drops, knocking over dominoes. The potential energy of the marble is 0.0048 Joules.
Step 11: The marbles pushes a spring powered car which pushes a button on the camera, taking a picture. The velocity of the spring powered car is 1.27 meters per second.
Concepts
Force: strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement.
Work: (of a machine or system) operate or function, especially properly or effectively.
Acceleration: a vector quantity that is defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity. An object is accelerating if it is changing its velocity.
Mechanical Advantage: the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force or torque applied to it.
Velocity: vector physical quantity; both magnitude and direction are required
Reflection
There were a lot of problems in this project. In the beginning we had so many ideas that we couldn't chose which ones to use and which ones we were going to throw away. Next, most of the group had not used any power tools such as a drill and power saw. This was a rough start because we were constantly needing to cut something or screw something in. But our biggest problem was time. We spent so much time on trying to get the pulleys to work that everything else became 2nd priority, which is not good because the pulleys were only in two of the steps. And then we had the deadline, which we weren't worried about in the beginning but time went by to quickly and before we knew it there was only 2 days left. We got it done though, and the presentations went better than I thought. All throughout this project I got to know the other members of my group pretty well.
Our machine was called the Picture Machine because the end product was taking a picture with a Polaroid camera. The Picture Machine had 11 steps and included all 6 of the simple machines. The simple machines are: wheel and axle, wedge, inclined plane, screw, pulley, and the lever.
Steps to the Picture Machine
Step 1: A person started it off by pulling on the lever which has a marble on it. The lever did 3.25 Joules of work.
Step 2: The marble rolles down an inclined plane and into a cup with a hole in the bottom allowing the ball to drop. The velocity of the marble was .98 meters per second.
Step 3: Once the marble drops from the cup, it rolls down an inclined plane. The mechanical advantage of the inclined plane is 2.83.
Step 4: The marble then rolls into a cup attatched to a pulley system with a wedge on the other end. The mechanical advantage of the pulley is 1.
Step 5: A golfball is held in place by a wedge and once the pulley system is activated the wedge will lift. The force of the wedge is 0.0475 Newtons.
Step 6: The golfball rolls down another inclined plane knocking over a cup of water. The acceleration of the golfball is 1.11 meters per second squared.
Step 7: The water from the cup flows down a screw into a cup attached to a pulley system.
Step 8: The cup pulls on the sting which activates the second pulley system lifting popsicle sticks. The mechanical advantage of the pulley system is 3.
Step 9: The popsicle sticks pushes a pinwheel lever that releases a marble. The mechanical advantage of the pinwheel is 3.
Step 10: The marble drops, knocking over dominoes. The potential energy of the marble is 0.0048 Joules.
Step 11: The marbles pushes a spring powered car which pushes a button on the camera, taking a picture. The velocity of the spring powered car is 1.27 meters per second.
Concepts
Force: strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement.
Work: (of a machine or system) operate or function, especially properly or effectively.
Acceleration: a vector quantity that is defined as the rate at which an object changes its velocity. An object is accelerating if it is changing its velocity.
Mechanical Advantage: the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force or torque applied to it.
Velocity: vector physical quantity; both magnitude and direction are required
Reflection
There were a lot of problems in this project. In the beginning we had so many ideas that we couldn't chose which ones to use and which ones we were going to throw away. Next, most of the group had not used any power tools such as a drill and power saw. This was a rough start because we were constantly needing to cut something or screw something in. But our biggest problem was time. We spent so much time on trying to get the pulleys to work that everything else became 2nd priority, which is not good because the pulleys were only in two of the steps. And then we had the deadline, which we weren't worried about in the beginning but time went by to quickly and before we knew it there was only 2 days left. We got it done though, and the presentations went better than I thought. All throughout this project I got to know the other members of my group pretty well.