The Rube Goldberg Machine
The Rube Goldberg Machine is a system that consists of several intricate steps to complete a relatively simple task. An example of this could be the picture right here to the left. The user of the napkin could easily just wipe his mouth with the napkin, but instead there are 13 difficult steps for that to happen.
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Our Rube Goldberg Machine
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We started this project thinking of a theme. We eventually came upon the idea of the process of bread making. Even though it ended up working out really well, we had a lot of problems along the way. It wasn't easy setting everything up and making sure it worked with 9 days to do it. We really had to focus and put our all into the project. The first day really consisted of mental preparation and making sure we knew where everything would go. Building came very easy to us. Calculating how everything would work was the main issue. We had to keep finding new ways to produce energy, we resorted to using blocks that were high off the ground to produce it.
Simple Machines: Inclined Plane: It is essentially just a ramp. Pulley: Used to lift a load. In ours, it is used to hold down something like a wedge which is blocking a marble. Screw: A spiral, in ours, our first tube is a screw. Wheel and Axle: In ours, it's the knife attached to the CD. When something hits the knife, it moves the CD. Lever: In ours, it was the oven door. As the marble hit the bottom of it, it pushed the top forward. Wedge: A triangle shaped object. In ours, it was used to wedge the marble into place Our machine consisted of many intricate steps. It started by going down our first simple machine which was a screw. After that, it then proceeded to roll onto a platform. The energy from the marble knocked over a cup of flour off the table which was part of our second simple machine, a pulley. The pulley lifted up our third simple machine, a wedge which released a marble down our fourth simple machines, inclined planes. The marble went from side to side until it went down a ramp leading into another tube. After it went through the tube, it hit some dominoes which toppled onto each other. The biggest domino hit a marble that rolled down a tube into the "oven". It then hit our fifth simple machine, a lever, which then catapulted the marble on top towards a cup leaning on the edge. After it hit the cup, it fell releasing our second pulley. The marble from that ramp rolled down a spiral of tubes and hit right into the knife on the CD, which was our sixth simple machine, wheel and axle. This project was a great experience. Every part of it, from blueprinting to actually building it. It really put a lot of things into perspective for me. I learned a lot of my strengths and weaknesses from doing it. I discovered that I really like presenting in front of people and that I like to take charge. I think my teammates also really benefited from it. They also seemed to have learned a lot from it. Overall, this was a fantastic project that couldn't have happened without the help of my teammates. |