Rube Goldberg Machine
rube_goldberg_autosaved.pptx | |
File Size: | 2495 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
The past 6 weeks and 25 hours we have been working diligently as a class, and in our groups, on our Rube Goldberg projects. My groups projects name is Shrek, for as a teammate of mine put it, its big, green and ugly. We started out our project by coming up with ideas to what we would have our problem be. After throwing a few things around we came up with the idea of filling a cup with soda. The fun part about this is we were going to use diet coke and Mentos to complete the task. Some of the things our project had to include were 5 simple machines, 4 energy transfers, 10 steps, and must look clean. Our projects 5 simple machines were a pulley, lever, wheel and axle(toy car), inclined plane, and a wedge. Most of our energy transfers we kinetic energy to kinetic energy for everything is going down, never raising up to become potential energy. Our ten, well more than 10 steps are in the power point which you can download and look at. After getting as close to finishing as we were going to, we began to work on the calculations and the presentations. Finally it was the big night, and of course our ending finale (Mentos and diet coke "explosion" to fill up the cup) only worked once but the rest of the machine worked flawlessly. This was a very fun learning experience and learning opportunity.
Physics Concepts
Potential Energy- Is the energy an object has when it is in a certain position, it is calculated by multiplying mass, acceleration due to gravity, and the height of the object to where it is position. The pinball had a potential energy of 1.6 Newton's.
Kinetic Energy- Is how much energy an object had due to its motion, it is calculated the equation KE=1/2mass(velocity^2). Most of our energy transfers were kinetic for an object was never raising up to become potential. For example the collision of the pinball and marble was a kinetic energy transfers
Acceleration- Is calculated by dividing velocity over distance, and is the rate at which the velocity of an object changes over time. As the first golf ball rolled down the ramp it had an acceleration of 0.65 m/s^2.
Velocity - Is speed with direction and is calculated by dividing distance by time. When the golf ball hits the Lego it then gets a velocity of 0.01995 m/s.
Work- Is the amount of force applied to move an object a certain distance and is calculated by multiplying force times distance. When the pulley is lowering the marble it is doing a certain amount of work.
Speed- Is the amount of distance an object covers in a certain amount of time. When the car falls of the "ledge" it has a speed of 9.8 m/s for it is free falling, as one might put it.
Force- It can be described as a push or pull and is calculated by multiplying mass and acceleration. When the 2nd gold ball is rolling down the inclined plane it is exertion a force of 4.58 Newton's.
Reflection
I think that overall throughout this entire process my group worked well together and we came out with a great final project. We may not have been perfect but in the end it all worked out. A few things that I learned through this process was who Rube Goldberg actually was. I learned that I brought my years with drama experience into presentation and that it helped boost my confidence. Force example when I was standing up straighter and was able to talk to the audience without my face turning into a big red tomato, I felt more confident and controlled. I also learned how to use many different type of tools such as a power saw and what to do if a pesky little nail is stuck. I also realized I was determining things, like how that nail is going to have to go in, or how we are going to have to fix the lever again while in the process of building our machine. Another thing that I learned about was I need to control my time management. I just cant focus on one thing for a long time if its not working, I need to change it and move forward so I have extra time for experimental error. An example of that would be we were spending way to much time on trying to perfect our pulley, instead of just using an actual one to save time. One big pit for our machine was also the coke and Mentos, except for one time during presentation night, the Mentos would fall in to early or the car would not put enough force on the pick to be able to pull it out so that the Mentos would fall in. As a group we should have addressed this more seriously and found a different way of getting the Mentos to fall in. With all this new information and experience I can now bring it into my life and work on it grow and become a better person.