Rube Goldberg Machine
The Rube Goldberg machine was our big project in Tina's Physics class. The point of the machine is to complete a simple task through a complicated system using satire. The simple task this year was applying a band-aid. Our group, called Michael Scott Paper Company, chose to put our band-aid on a globe to 'fix global warming' and that was our satire. Everyone in the group had a role. I was Scott Pruitt, the current head of the EPA, Emerald and Riley were Lobbyists for big oil and gas corporations. Cole and Michael were concerned voters trying to help fight global warming, and Kian and Owen were Eco-terrorists who took extreme measures to save the planet. Our group won the award for best satire! The photo on the left is our group holding up our trophy. Below the photo is a link to a video of our Rube performing almost perfectly!
The Rube Goldberg machine is composed of different steps made by each person in the group. My step was a shelf with dominoes which pushed a marble into a screw made of PVC pipe. Once the marble traveled through the screw it would move down a series of downward slanted half pipes. The dominoes are levers, with the fulcrum being the point at which the domino meets the surface it rests on. The PVC screw functioned as the simple machine, screw and the half pipe ramps functioned as inclined planes. The dominoes and the marble posses potential energy when stationary, and kinetic energy when in motion. When on the inclined planes the marble uses its momentum and inertia to ultimately knock over a trigger.
To prove our knowledge we have individually answered problems below I will display two that build off of each other.
1.Suppose you drop a 7 gram steel ball 50 cm into a tiny bucket on a pulley system. Calculate the potential energy.
.007 kg * 9.81 m/s^2 * .5 m = .0343 Joules
2. When your steel ball lands in the tiny bucket it has a velocity of 45 cm/s. Calculate the Kinetic energy of your steel ball.
1/2 * .007 * ( .45 m/s^2) = .00070875 Joules
To design our beautiful project our group got together and first decided on our satire, then we each sketched what we wanted our individual steps to be. After we knew what we wanted to create we consulted with the entire group and together we decided who's steps fit together and the order in which we would execute each.
I think that my greatest strength in working on the rube project was creativity because I wanted to really sell the satire which involved global warming, so I made my screw look like a smokestack, and one of my dominoes was painted to look like a gas can. During this project, I learned how to better collaborate with my peers by separating tasks and consistently conferring with my group mates and our group leader.
Mini Projectiles
Sophie the shadow launching our projectile
me measuring how far the projectile went
Darby measuring time
In order to study projectile motion, we built trebuchets. Darby and I built an Onager, which is a torsional force powered weapon from 250 B.C Rome. Because the Onager wasn't a fancy weapon we painted the wood to look like oak and we painted some iron bolts on the sides to emulate the original weapon.
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I think that Darby and I worked really well together, we separated tasks, so we weren't wasting time, but we also helped each other so we wouldn't get burned out. We carefully planned for a whole class period, which helped us to be efficient in the building process.
We could've been more prepared for our presentation to the class about our trebuchet when explaining our calculations. Pictures of us presenting are displayed below.
Launch!
