Hello! I see you've stumbled upon my first STEM project. Well good news, I have some great material here for you.
Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. He was mainly known for his comics which depicted very complicated and tedious ways to do quite simple tasks. Our job for the Rube Goldberg project was to make an actual machine doing a simple task in a complicated way. We needed to have 5 simple machines, 10 steps, and 4 energy transfers.
Our project's theme was decided by brainstorming a bunch of random ideas and then voting on 2 or 3 that we liked the best. Cars was the only theme we could agree on, and this went fine until we started building. We realized we needed a more specific theme, so we pondered it a bit, and decided to stick with cars. Not cars in general as we had originally thought, but more specifically the Disney Pixar movie "Cars."
In our project, we used various energy transfers, simple machines, and moving parts as well as stationary parts.
We decided what to put in our machine as we went along: an incline plane, a pulley, a screw, a lever, and a wedge for our simple machines. We have ten steps described in the paragraph below. We have more than 4 energy transfers, but here are 4 out of the many that we have. The change from potential to kinetic energy as the car is released at the top of the ramp in step one. The next is the change from potential to kinetic energy as the water in the cup shifts the wheel on the lever into motion in step six. The next is the change from potential to kinetic energy as the wheel gets nudged over the wedge in step eight. The final transfer of energy is from potential to kinetic energy as the weight goes from sitting in the cup to toppling over onto the button in step ten.
-The project starts off by someone releasing a toy car down an incline plane.
-The second step is when the car then falls off the incline plane and into a cup. This cup is attached to a string which is on a pulley. On the other end of the string is another cup filled with water. The string is attached to the bottom of the cup so, when moved, the cup moves in a pivoting motion dumping out the water.
-The third step is when the weight of the car in the first cup is enough to trigger this action, dumping the water into a funnel.
-The fourth step is when the water travels through the funnel and into a tube, or screw. This represents the pouring of the gasoline.
-The fifth step is when the water exits the screw and fills up a cup on a lever, which pulls the lever down.
-The sixth step is when the wheel rolls down the lever.
-The seventh step is when the wheel hits the wheel attached to the keys.
-The eighth step is when the wheel attached to the keys gets knocked off the wedge moving the keys down the zip line.
-The ninth step is when the keys hit the cup containing the weight.
-The tenth and final step is when the weight falls out of the cup, toppling onto the staples button making the "That was easy" sound which is supposed to represent the honking of the car horn.
OUR CONTENT
Here are the major physics concepts in our machine:
Velocity: rate of distance traveled in a specific direction
Speed: rate of distance covered
Acceleration: change in velocity speed
Mechanical Advantage: how much easier a tool makes something
Downward Force or Gravity: the magnet-like force that draws an object toward a celestial body (or any physical object having mass for that matter)
Potential Energy: energy due to an object's position in a gravitational field
Kinetic Energy: energy due to the motion of an object
Work: the amount of energy put into something
(Note: there are other debatably less major physics concepts in our machine)
You can see velocity in a few places, one of which being the first step of the wheel rolling down the lever. This was used to gain momentum which helped trigger the next steps.
You can see speed as the water zooms through the screw. This concept wasn't necessarily intended to have a purpose in the completion of the overall project, but I guess it makes the project's run time a little quicker. Hopefully you were less bored this way.
You might observe acceleration as the the car on the first incline plane goes from slow to fast very quickly. This produced velocity which helped knock the cup off its little support, continuing the flow of steps throughout the machine.
You can observe mechanical advantage in the screw seeing that the water would fall faster if the screw wasn't there to slow down the flow of the water. This makes it easier for the human eye to observe what happens during this step.
You might notice gravity in our project as the keys are pulled down the zip line (toward the center of the earth.) We used this natural force to our advantage so that we can keep the keys moving down this barely slanted slope.
You can see potential energy as the weight sits in the cup above the staples button. This helped with the completion of the project by providing a step for the project.
You will watch kinetic energy taking place as the weight is falling from the cup to the button. This provided a step for the project, and it basically was the end result of the project.
You might have noticed work being performed as the water falls into the cup. This helped with the completion of the project because this helped trigger one of the steps in the machine.
MY REFLECTIONS
All in all, I really liked this project. This is was a truly unforgettable experience. I think the trial and error technique went pretty well in our project. We figured out what we needed this way. That also doubles a downside, though, because it was very time consuming this way, and I think next time I should plan out what should be done on what day of a project, kind of like a personal work timeline.
I learned that I have a good attitude and I can mediate problems well. I also can think about the big picture and any issues concerning the finished product. I learned how to manage my time a little better. I also learned to have a little more confidence when I speak in front of a large crowd. Something I could have done better is I could have been even more time efficient than I was because I got off task a few times. For example, instead of helping with a task that required multiple people, I was talking to another group. I will continue to try to mange my time well. Another thing I will continue to improve upon is my leadership. I did not help delegate tasks very much, and for the most part I just did what I was told. This did not help because when it was unclear on what needed to be done, I sat idly by and waited for instruction which ended up waisting some time.
Thanks for reading about my Rube Goldberg Project!
Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. He was mainly known for his comics which depicted very complicated and tedious ways to do quite simple tasks. Our job for the Rube Goldberg project was to make an actual machine doing a simple task in a complicated way. We needed to have 5 simple machines, 10 steps, and 4 energy transfers.
Our project's theme was decided by brainstorming a bunch of random ideas and then voting on 2 or 3 that we liked the best. Cars was the only theme we could agree on, and this went fine until we started building. We realized we needed a more specific theme, so we pondered it a bit, and decided to stick with cars. Not cars in general as we had originally thought, but more specifically the Disney Pixar movie "Cars."
In our project, we used various energy transfers, simple machines, and moving parts as well as stationary parts.
We decided what to put in our machine as we went along: an incline plane, a pulley, a screw, a lever, and a wedge for our simple machines. We have ten steps described in the paragraph below. We have more than 4 energy transfers, but here are 4 out of the many that we have. The change from potential to kinetic energy as the car is released at the top of the ramp in step one. The next is the change from potential to kinetic energy as the water in the cup shifts the wheel on the lever into motion in step six. The next is the change from potential to kinetic energy as the wheel gets nudged over the wedge in step eight. The final transfer of energy is from potential to kinetic energy as the weight goes from sitting in the cup to toppling over onto the button in step ten.
-The project starts off by someone releasing a toy car down an incline plane.
-The second step is when the car then falls off the incline plane and into a cup. This cup is attached to a string which is on a pulley. On the other end of the string is another cup filled with water. The string is attached to the bottom of the cup so, when moved, the cup moves in a pivoting motion dumping out the water.
-The third step is when the weight of the car in the first cup is enough to trigger this action, dumping the water into a funnel.
-The fourth step is when the water travels through the funnel and into a tube, or screw. This represents the pouring of the gasoline.
-The fifth step is when the water exits the screw and fills up a cup on a lever, which pulls the lever down.
-The sixth step is when the wheel rolls down the lever.
-The seventh step is when the wheel hits the wheel attached to the keys.
-The eighth step is when the wheel attached to the keys gets knocked off the wedge moving the keys down the zip line.
-The ninth step is when the keys hit the cup containing the weight.
-The tenth and final step is when the weight falls out of the cup, toppling onto the staples button making the "That was easy" sound which is supposed to represent the honking of the car horn.
OUR CONTENT
Here are the major physics concepts in our machine:
Velocity: rate of distance traveled in a specific direction
Speed: rate of distance covered
Acceleration: change in velocity speed
Mechanical Advantage: how much easier a tool makes something
Downward Force or Gravity: the magnet-like force that draws an object toward a celestial body (or any physical object having mass for that matter)
Potential Energy: energy due to an object's position in a gravitational field
Kinetic Energy: energy due to the motion of an object
Work: the amount of energy put into something
(Note: there are other debatably less major physics concepts in our machine)
You can see velocity in a few places, one of which being the first step of the wheel rolling down the lever. This was used to gain momentum which helped trigger the next steps.
You can see speed as the water zooms through the screw. This concept wasn't necessarily intended to have a purpose in the completion of the overall project, but I guess it makes the project's run time a little quicker. Hopefully you were less bored this way.
You might observe acceleration as the the car on the first incline plane goes from slow to fast very quickly. This produced velocity which helped knock the cup off its little support, continuing the flow of steps throughout the machine.
You can observe mechanical advantage in the screw seeing that the water would fall faster if the screw wasn't there to slow down the flow of the water. This makes it easier for the human eye to observe what happens during this step.
You might notice gravity in our project as the keys are pulled down the zip line (toward the center of the earth.) We used this natural force to our advantage so that we can keep the keys moving down this barely slanted slope.
You can see potential energy as the weight sits in the cup above the staples button. This helped with the completion of the project by providing a step for the project.
You will watch kinetic energy taking place as the weight is falling from the cup to the button. This provided a step for the project, and it basically was the end result of the project.
You might have noticed work being performed as the water falls into the cup. This helped with the completion of the project because this helped trigger one of the steps in the machine.
MY REFLECTIONS
All in all, I really liked this project. This is was a truly unforgettable experience. I think the trial and error technique went pretty well in our project. We figured out what we needed this way. That also doubles a downside, though, because it was very time consuming this way, and I think next time I should plan out what should be done on what day of a project, kind of like a personal work timeline.
I learned that I have a good attitude and I can mediate problems well. I also can think about the big picture and any issues concerning the finished product. I learned how to manage my time a little better. I also learned to have a little more confidence when I speak in front of a large crowd. Something I could have done better is I could have been even more time efficient than I was because I got off task a few times. For example, instead of helping with a task that required multiple people, I was talking to another group. I will continue to try to mange my time well. Another thing I will continue to improve upon is my leadership. I did not help delegate tasks very much, and for the most part I just did what I was told. This did not help because when it was unclear on what needed to be done, I sat idly by and waited for instruction which ended up waisting some time.
Thanks for reading about my Rube Goldberg Project!