RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINES
In this project, we were asigned to build a Rube Goldburg machine. For those reading this that don't know what a Rube Goldburg machine is, it's a very complicated contraption with many components that ultimately completes a simple task. A very intence Rube Golberg machine can take up whole rooms, as seen in the video below. More videos of this matter you can find in the 'video' section of this website. Of course we will not be doing machines this alaberate in structure.
ABOUT RUBE GOLDBERG
Rube Goldberge was an American caroonist, engineer, autor, inventor, and scuptor. He live from July 4, 1883 to December 7, 1910. He is best known for his popular cartoons of elaberate gadgets that preform simple tasks at the end of the whole thing. Rube Goldburge also founded the National Cartoonists Society as well as recieving several awards such as a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons aswell as the Banshees' Silver Lady Award. Besides him recieving awards he also is the namesake of the Reube Award. This award is given to the cartoonist of the year. Many international compititions were created because of him. These were known the as The Rueb Goldberg Machine Contests . For more information on these contests click thist link: _
PROJECT SUMMERY
In our class, our first project assignment was to creat a Rube Goldburg Machine with our groups, consisting of three other people besides ourselves.
Our group first began by brainstrorming ideas for what our machine should accomplish. We finally decided on the task of actually starting our slideshow for our presentation. From there we began planning the actual blueprint of the machine and came up with a materials list. We each brought these materials to class to begin work. We were given a 4x4 foot peice of plywood initially for our main structer of the machine. We spent an average of 28 hours building, 7 of which were spent at home. |
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Shown on the left hand side is the end result. It consists of pullys, a computer, weights, balls, a mini car, buckets, a spoon, yarn, 4’ x 4’ plywood, a wheel and axil, dominos, marbles, marble tracks, a metal track, scissors, a pipe, several nails and screws and tons of pain and hotglue. There are five simple machines shown on this machines: a wheel and axil, pullys, inclined planes, lever and a wedge, and has a total of 17 steps. It took seveal mistkes and several burns to get to this point. In the slides below, there is an explanation of each step of the machine, along with basic math involved with the actions.
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CONCEPTS
There are several concepts needed to calculate all of the math needed for this project. There is force, potential and kenetic energy, mechanical advantage, and newtons third law.
FORCE: Force is strength or energy as an attributed of physical action or movement. The equation used to find the force is mass times acceleration. We used this equation to calculate how many newtons of force was put onto the lever in step 1 and 2 by the marble and force domino to domino, aswell as other portians of other calculations. Newtons is the SI unit of force. It is equal to the force that would give a mass of one kilogram an acceleration of one meter per second per second, and is equivalent to 100,000 dynes.
POTENTIAL ENERGY: Potential energy is the energy stored in an object juged on there possition. Potential Energy, aswell as Kinetic Energy is measured in the unit of Joules. Joules is the SI unit of work or energy, equal to the work done by a force of one newton when its point of application moves one meter in the direction of action of the force, equivalent to one 3600th of a watt-hour. The formula for Potential Energy is PE=mass•grivitational acceleration•height. The gravitational acceleration is equivelent to 9.8m/s. We used Potential energy for example in step 4. Where we ca lculated how much energy the ball had at the top of the inclined plane.
KINETIC ENERGY: In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. The formula for kinetic energy is K.E = 12 mv2. Teachnically, kinetic energy is ∆KE≈∆PE if you are truely lazy. Theoretically, all the potential energy should transfer all over to kinetic energy. However, errors such as friction and human error can result in energy being transferred into other objets such as into heat energy from friction.
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE: Mechanical advantage is the ratio of the force produced by a machine to the force applied to it, used in assessing the performance of a machine. There are several formulas you can use for machanical advantage. The formula we used the most for mechanical advantage was the output force divided by input force. There are two types of mechanical advantage, ideal for a theoretical machine and real for an actual machine. We obviosly used real mechanical advantage.
FORCE: Force is strength or energy as an attributed of physical action or movement. The equation used to find the force is mass times acceleration. We used this equation to calculate how many newtons of force was put onto the lever in step 1 and 2 by the marble and force domino to domino, aswell as other portians of other calculations. Newtons is the SI unit of force. It is equal to the force that would give a mass of one kilogram an acceleration of one meter per second per second, and is equivalent to 100,000 dynes.
POTENTIAL ENERGY: Potential energy is the energy stored in an object juged on there possition. Potential Energy, aswell as Kinetic Energy is measured in the unit of Joules. Joules is the SI unit of work or energy, equal to the work done by a force of one newton when its point of application moves one meter in the direction of action of the force, equivalent to one 3600th of a watt-hour. The formula for Potential Energy is PE=mass•grivitational acceleration•height. The gravitational acceleration is equivelent to 9.8m/s. We used Potential energy for example in step 4. Where we ca lculated how much energy the ball had at the top of the inclined plane.
KINETIC ENERGY: In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. The formula for kinetic energy is K.E = 12 mv2. Teachnically, kinetic energy is ∆KE≈∆PE if you are truely lazy. Theoretically, all the potential energy should transfer all over to kinetic energy. However, errors such as friction and human error can result in energy being transferred into other objets such as into heat energy from friction.
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE: Mechanical advantage is the ratio of the force produced by a machine to the force applied to it, used in assessing the performance of a machine. There are several formulas you can use for machanical advantage. The formula we used the most for mechanical advantage was the output force divided by input force. There are two types of mechanical advantage, ideal for a theoretical machine and real for an actual machine. We obviosly used real mechanical advantage.
here is a more detailed article on how to find mechanical advantage of all of the simple machines, along with explanations, examples, and formulas. Check it out!
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NEWTONS THIRD LAW: Newtons third law of phyisics states, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. "Newton's third law is one of the fundamental symmetry principles of the universe. Since we have no examples of it being violated in nature, it is a useful tool for analyzing situations which are somewhat counter-intuitive."–http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/newt.html. So for example in our last step, the gold ball hits the weight. The energy istransferred from the ball to the weight. The action causes the weight to fall.
REFLECTION
I think overall, our project turned out rather impressive overall. We did have to cut alot of our original bluebrint out due to time limits, however the machine still has over the required 10 steps. Most of the calculations were done by my teammate, Jessica Walters. The lovely scematic was done on Sketch Up, by Max Von Blankenburg. I took our machine home over the weekend and refined a few things to make it work more efficiently aswell as creating the keynote presentation for the exibit hall.
The presentation night was an excellent experiance and was alot of fun. If there was one thing we would change on our project it would probably be to find a quicker way to set up. We eventually got more or less efficient at seting up our machine, however, it took us five to ten minutes to finish one set up. Our overall presentation (keynote slideshow) I felt could have been a bit more practiced. I felt like we relyed too hevely on our slides.
We did get a few videos of our project in action but it never worked all the way through on camera unfortunately. We filmed ten times, the elevnth time through it worked on camera. It had camera shock I suppose, because it basically worked every time it was not filmed. I think our group generally worked ok together. It was a challenge at first seeing as we didn't always get along, however we somehw made it happen and I am very proud of what we accomplished.
The presentation night was an excellent experiance and was alot of fun. If there was one thing we would change on our project it would probably be to find a quicker way to set up. We eventually got more or less efficient at seting up our machine, however, it took us five to ten minutes to finish one set up. Our overall presentation (keynote slideshow) I felt could have been a bit more practiced. I felt like we relyed too hevely on our slides.
We did get a few videos of our project in action but it never worked all the way through on camera unfortunately. We filmed ten times, the elevnth time through it worked on camera. It had camera shock I suppose, because it basically worked every time it was not filmed. I think our group generally worked ok together. It was a challenge at first seeing as we didn't always get along, however we somehw made it happen and I am very proud of what we accomplished.
as you can see, the truck missed the golf ball