Intro To Our Project
A Rube Goldberg is a Machine that does a simple job in a complicated way. The Rube Goldberg we made is called the Maze Ruber. Why Maze Ruber? Why that is simple! We combined the popular book series, "The Maze Runner," and Rube Goldberg into one simple phrase. Our machine symbolizes the maze runners, and their desperate attempts of escape through the maze. We drew a maze on the board and showed which way they needed to go to find the way out, which the marble followed. At the bottom of our machine, we have a “that was easy” button. This shows the irony of it, because it was not easy for the runners to escape the maze, nor was it easy to build the machine.
Our Rube Goldberg machine has 12 steps and the total run time is 8.8 seconds. The marbles we used each weighed 0.0145kg and we had a total of 5 marbles that were used. We also had 12 simple machines that we incorporated in different places on our board. We had two pulley systems, one located at the top left side of the board and one located on the bottom right. Our pulleys are used to transfer weight from two different places, one transfers weight, so a block will be moved upward, as opposed to our other one that needs 2-3 marbles before it can lift a small mass off the “Easy” button. We had seven inclined planes scattered on our board with three on the left, three on the right and one in the middle. We had one wheel in axle, this was on the left side of our board and was used to activate a marble on the left side via remote control. We had one screw, and this was located near the bottom of our board. This wrapped around and let the marble fall a large distance, without taking up too much space. We also had one lever, this lever was used to activate the remote to trigger the left side to activate. Watch the video below to see our machine work using all these components!
It took us a total of 12 days to complete the construction of the board. The first three days we planned our project and drew a schematic. We also sanded down our entire board and drilled in our first piece. Then day four through ten, we built and finalized the construction of our machine. We had trouble with the tools, and were crunched on time, but we met our deadline. Then, day eleven through thirteen, we painted and adjusted our board to completion. We also added and made a remote, and tried to make it work consistently. We made a video and a slideshow at this time as well.
Our Rube Goldberg machine has 12 steps and the total run time is 8.8 seconds. The marbles we used each weighed 0.0145kg and we had a total of 5 marbles that were used. We also had 12 simple machines that we incorporated in different places on our board. We had two pulley systems, one located at the top left side of the board and one located on the bottom right. Our pulleys are used to transfer weight from two different places, one transfers weight, so a block will be moved upward, as opposed to our other one that needs 2-3 marbles before it can lift a small mass off the “Easy” button. We had seven inclined planes scattered on our board with three on the left, three on the right and one in the middle. We had one wheel in axle, this was on the left side of our board and was used to activate a marble on the left side via remote control. We had one screw, and this was located near the bottom of our board. This wrapped around and let the marble fall a large distance, without taking up too much space. We also had one lever, this lever was used to activate the remote to trigger the left side to activate. Watch the video below to see our machine work using all these components!
It took us a total of 12 days to complete the construction of the board. The first three days we planned our project and drew a schematic. We also sanded down our entire board and drilled in our first piece. Then day four through ten, we built and finalized the construction of our machine. We had trouble with the tools, and were crunched on time, but we met our deadline. Then, day eleven through thirteen, we painted and adjusted our board to completion. We also added and made a remote, and tried to make it work consistently. We made a video and a slideshow at this time as well.
Concepts
In this project we used vocabulary and words that some might not be familiar with. Below I will describe them and show what they are used for and what equation they have.
Distance(d): The amount of space between two points, measured in meters. We used this to find how long our ramps were as well as our screw.
Velocity(v): The rate of covered distance in a direction, measured in meters per second(m/s). Equation: v=🔺d/🔺t. We did not use this because velocity is the acceleration in a direction, and we needed to calculate just acceleration to find force.
Acceleration(a): The rate of change of velocity, measure in meters per second squared(m/s^2). Equation: a=v/t. We used this to find the increase of speed of objects, and we also used this to find force.
Acceleration due to gravity(ag): Gravity is a force between objects in proportion to their mass and inverse to their distance, measured in 9.8m/s^2 on Earth. We used this to calculate free falling objects, because the actual acceleration due to gravity is 9.8m/s^2 on Earth.
Work(w): The amount of energy put into something, measured in Joules(j). Equations: w=🔺KE=🔺PE w=fd. Work showed us how much energy is needed to push the pulleys and levers.
Mass(m): The amount of matter; number of atoms, measured in kilograms(kg). We measured the mass of the metal balls to calculate the force of certain things.
Force(f): The push or pull of an object, measured in Newtons(N), equation: f=ma. We used this to see how much force the marbles applied to different things.
Gravitational Potential Energy(PE): The energy an object has due to it’s height, measured in Joules(j). Equation PEg=m(ag)h W=🔺KE=🔺PE. One of the four energy transfers in our project.
Kinetic Energy(KE): Energy due to motion; measured in Joules(j). Equations: KE= ½ mv^2 W = 🔺KE=🔺PE. Another one of the four energy transfers in our project.
Mechanical Advantage(MA): How much easier a tool makes a task. MA= F w/o machine divided by F w/ machine or d w/ machine divided by d w/o machine. This helped us increase the force applied to certain objects and we needed it to figure out the forces.
Distance(d): The amount of space between two points, measured in meters. We used this to find how long our ramps were as well as our screw.
Velocity(v): The rate of covered distance in a direction, measured in meters per second(m/s). Equation: v=🔺d/🔺t. We did not use this because velocity is the acceleration in a direction, and we needed to calculate just acceleration to find force.
Acceleration(a): The rate of change of velocity, measure in meters per second squared(m/s^2). Equation: a=v/t. We used this to find the increase of speed of objects, and we also used this to find force.
Acceleration due to gravity(ag): Gravity is a force between objects in proportion to their mass and inverse to their distance, measured in 9.8m/s^2 on Earth. We used this to calculate free falling objects, because the actual acceleration due to gravity is 9.8m/s^2 on Earth.
Work(w): The amount of energy put into something, measured in Joules(j). Equations: w=🔺KE=🔺PE w=fd. Work showed us how much energy is needed to push the pulleys and levers.
Mass(m): The amount of matter; number of atoms, measured in kilograms(kg). We measured the mass of the metal balls to calculate the force of certain things.
Force(f): The push or pull of an object, measured in Newtons(N), equation: f=ma. We used this to see how much force the marbles applied to different things.
Gravitational Potential Energy(PE): The energy an object has due to it’s height, measured in Joules(j). Equation PEg=m(ag)h W=🔺KE=🔺PE. One of the four energy transfers in our project.
Kinetic Energy(KE): Energy due to motion; measured in Joules(j). Equations: KE= ½ mv^2 W = 🔺KE=🔺PE. Another one of the four energy transfers in our project.
Mechanical Advantage(MA): How much easier a tool makes a task. MA= F w/o machine divided by F w/ machine or d w/ machine divided by d w/o machine. This helped us increase the force applied to certain objects and we needed it to figure out the forces.
Types of measurements
- Newtons(N) - amount of Force. 4.5N is about 1 pound.
- Seconds(s) - a measurement of time
- Kilograms(kg) - a measurement of mass
- 🔺 - change in something
- Meters(m) - a measurement of distance
- Joules(J) - a measurement that shows how much energy something has.
Reflection
This project showed great team effort, and if you work together correctly, not only will the project be fun, but it will end up being a positive learning experience. I discovered that while working on a large project, one should always trust their teammates, because if you do it will make collaboration easier and the project will ultimately be better. Now, I have clear understanding of how to use power tools and when is an appropriate time to use them. These skills will be crucial in the future, because if you know how to work well in a team and have an understanding of power tools, then you can be productive in a large set of jobs, including engineering, which will be my focus through high school and college.
To evaluate this project, I am going to address both the negatives and positives my team experienced during the work process. First, our team gelled immediately which helped our work ethic, and made us more optimistic about this project. We did not all work on the same things at the same time, but we split off and had our own agenda, so we could get work done faster, but not get in the way of one another. Unfortunately, not every project is completely filled with focus and impeccable work ethic. We sometimes got carried away, and joked a little too long when we could have been finessing the finishing details of our design. Also, I believe that next time we should try to fix the complexity of our project design, because the remote was very inconsistent which made us get marked down by the judges. On a positive note, I noticed that we got overall score, which means that we succeeded in making a powerful presentation. Overall, this project was beneficial to my knowledge of engineering, and gave me a better understanding on how to be a good leader in group settings.
To evaluate this project, I am going to address both the negatives and positives my team experienced during the work process. First, our team gelled immediately which helped our work ethic, and made us more optimistic about this project. We did not all work on the same things at the same time, but we split off and had our own agenda, so we could get work done faster, but not get in the way of one another. Unfortunately, not every project is completely filled with focus and impeccable work ethic. We sometimes got carried away, and joked a little too long when we could have been finessing the finishing details of our design. Also, I believe that next time we should try to fix the complexity of our project design, because the remote was very inconsistent which made us get marked down by the judges. On a positive note, I noticed that we got overall score, which means that we succeeded in making a powerful presentation. Overall, this project was beneficial to my knowledge of engineering, and gave me a better understanding on how to be a good leader in group settings.