What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
A Rube Goldberg Machine is a complex series of steps that leads to a simple, mundane end step. Our machine's theme was the arts, with five of the six simple machines (levers, inclined planes, wedges, pulley systems, and a wheel and axle), many transfers of potential and kinetic energy, and prevalent principles of design.
The Process
Over the course of six weeks, our group created, constructed and presented our Rube Goldberg Machine. We began the entire development by researching the creator of the first Rube Goldberg Machines, American cartoonist and engineer Reuben Goldberg, who drew extremely complicated machines that completed a rather straightforward task. We then individually drew a rough blueprint of our own ideal machine, one that looked and functioned exactly as we wanted it to. As a group, we shared our ideas and picked elements from each member's plan to model the machine we would be building to scale with budget, materials, and time in mind. After three days of meticulous preparation, we began the nine day construction process. This proved to be extremely difficult to time manage, due to the many ambitious ideas we had. The beginning of the structuring aspect of the design took the most time, considering this was many of our first times using power tools, having to be so exact with measurements, and keeping unpredictable and outside forces in mind. We did have problems deciding what would be possible to achieve, starting out with a design that would prove to be impossible to complete with what we had in terms of time, experience, and resources. Once we eventually simplified our plan, the process was much more productive on a day to day basis. We did end up having to spend some extra out of class time to finish the machine itself, but completed the architectural part of the project with enough time to organize our presentation. The calculations of all the physics included on our board, power point of our experience, papers on all components of the machine, and finishing touches took another three days to complete. We then presented on September 29th to family, friends, and local judges.
A Rube Goldberg Machine is a complex series of steps that leads to a simple, mundane end step. Our machine's theme was the arts, with five of the six simple machines (levers, inclined planes, wedges, pulley systems, and a wheel and axle), many transfers of potential and kinetic energy, and prevalent principles of design.
The Process
Over the course of six weeks, our group created, constructed and presented our Rube Goldberg Machine. We began the entire development by researching the creator of the first Rube Goldberg Machines, American cartoonist and engineer Reuben Goldberg, who drew extremely complicated machines that completed a rather straightforward task. We then individually drew a rough blueprint of our own ideal machine, one that looked and functioned exactly as we wanted it to. As a group, we shared our ideas and picked elements from each member's plan to model the machine we would be building to scale with budget, materials, and time in mind. After three days of meticulous preparation, we began the nine day construction process. This proved to be extremely difficult to time manage, due to the many ambitious ideas we had. The beginning of the structuring aspect of the design took the most time, considering this was many of our first times using power tools, having to be so exact with measurements, and keeping unpredictable and outside forces in mind. We did have problems deciding what would be possible to achieve, starting out with a design that would prove to be impossible to complete with what we had in terms of time, experience, and resources. Once we eventually simplified our plan, the process was much more productive on a day to day basis. We did end up having to spend some extra out of class time to finish the machine itself, but completed the architectural part of the project with enough time to organize our presentation. The calculations of all the physics included on our board, power point of our experience, papers on all components of the machine, and finishing touches took another three days to complete. We then presented on September 29th to family, friends, and local judges.