Rube goldberg |
"balloon buster"
For this project, we were assigned to build a "Rube Goldberg Machine." A Rube Goldberg Machine is a complicated machine named after Reuben Garrett Lucius "Rube" Goldberg. Its purpose is to use simple machines with lots of steps to complete a simple task.
Our project was named "Balloon Buster" due to the fact that our end goal was to pop a balloon. My group spent the first couple of days creating an idea of what we would want to build and how we could accomplish this in our time frame. We struggled to come together on ideas at first, but we finally came to terms with each other and got to work. The first of our many complicate steps was the screw. The ball would start at the screw and make its way down and around and finally hit the hinge holding up the watering can. The watering can would be knocked off the hinge and poor water down the inclined planes. At the end of the inclined planes was a pulley system that had a sponge hanging from it. The water pours down and weighs down the sponge and then lifts the other piece of wood hanging on the pulley. The wood comes up and hits the lever that sends a ball rolling down a small track. The ball sets off the zip line that zips down the wire until it hits the golfball and sends it rolling. The golfball activates a tripwire that activates the plane. The plane flies off the runway and pops the balloon! After finishing the building portion of the project, we got into getting our presentation prepared and doing calculations on all of the steps of our project. In all, this took us about 2 or 3 weeks to complete.
Content
In this project, we used many different physics and engineering concepts. These are them, also containing a definition and an example of the concept in our project. Work is the amount of force applied to move an object a certain distance. It is calculated by multiplying force by distance. When the water-filled sponge moves the wood on the other side of the pulley, it is doing work. Force can be described as a push or pull. It is calculated by multiplying mass and acceleration. When the metal ball hits the hinge it uses force.Mechanical advantage is how much easier the machine makes the work. This is calculated by dividing the input by the output. The lever that hits the ball has mechanical advantage. Speed is the amount of distance an object covers in a given amount of time, and velocity is speed with a direction. When the golfball down the track, it has speed and velocity.Potential energy is the energy of an object in a certain position. It is calculated by multiplying mass, acceleration due to gravity, and the height of the object. When the weight is at the top of the zip line it has a certain PE. Kinetic energy is how much energy an object has due to motion. It is calculated by multiplying half the mass and velocity squared. When the golfball is moving down the track it has KE. Momentum is how much energy a moving object carries with it. It is calculated by multiplying mass by velocity. When the golf ball rolls down the track it has momentum.Impulse is the amount of force applied for a given amount of time. It is calculated by multiplying force and time. When the zip line hit the golfball it had impulse.
Reflection
All together, my group and I did a good job on this project. We didn't perform very well when testing our project, because not all of the steps worked together, but we had a very well designed and performed presentation. Our project was very ambitious and had lots of complex steps that had to be tweaked over and over again before we got them to work correctly. we had lots of problems with time management, and this cost us in the long run because we didn't get to do everything we had hoped to get done for our presentation. We did have lots of good ides that worked on paper, but they were very hard to get to work in reality. I have learned that being smarter with time management can really help your group accomplish their goal, so I will work on doing this better in the future. I will also take the upsides and downsides of this project to help myself do better in future projects.
Our project was named "Balloon Buster" due to the fact that our end goal was to pop a balloon. My group spent the first couple of days creating an idea of what we would want to build and how we could accomplish this in our time frame. We struggled to come together on ideas at first, but we finally came to terms with each other and got to work. The first of our many complicate steps was the screw. The ball would start at the screw and make its way down and around and finally hit the hinge holding up the watering can. The watering can would be knocked off the hinge and poor water down the inclined planes. At the end of the inclined planes was a pulley system that had a sponge hanging from it. The water pours down and weighs down the sponge and then lifts the other piece of wood hanging on the pulley. The wood comes up and hits the lever that sends a ball rolling down a small track. The ball sets off the zip line that zips down the wire until it hits the golfball and sends it rolling. The golfball activates a tripwire that activates the plane. The plane flies off the runway and pops the balloon! After finishing the building portion of the project, we got into getting our presentation prepared and doing calculations on all of the steps of our project. In all, this took us about 2 or 3 weeks to complete.
Content
In this project, we used many different physics and engineering concepts. These are them, also containing a definition and an example of the concept in our project. Work is the amount of force applied to move an object a certain distance. It is calculated by multiplying force by distance. When the water-filled sponge moves the wood on the other side of the pulley, it is doing work. Force can be described as a push or pull. It is calculated by multiplying mass and acceleration. When the metal ball hits the hinge it uses force.Mechanical advantage is how much easier the machine makes the work. This is calculated by dividing the input by the output. The lever that hits the ball has mechanical advantage. Speed is the amount of distance an object covers in a given amount of time, and velocity is speed with a direction. When the golfball down the track, it has speed and velocity.Potential energy is the energy of an object in a certain position. It is calculated by multiplying mass, acceleration due to gravity, and the height of the object. When the weight is at the top of the zip line it has a certain PE. Kinetic energy is how much energy an object has due to motion. It is calculated by multiplying half the mass and velocity squared. When the golfball is moving down the track it has KE. Momentum is how much energy a moving object carries with it. It is calculated by multiplying mass by velocity. When the golf ball rolls down the track it has momentum.Impulse is the amount of force applied for a given amount of time. It is calculated by multiplying force and time. When the zip line hit the golfball it had impulse.
Reflection
All together, my group and I did a good job on this project. We didn't perform very well when testing our project, because not all of the steps worked together, but we had a very well designed and performed presentation. Our project was very ambitious and had lots of complex steps that had to be tweaked over and over again before we got them to work correctly. we had lots of problems with time management, and this cost us in the long run because we didn't get to do everything we had hoped to get done for our presentation. We did have lots of good ides that worked on paper, but they were very hard to get to work in reality. I have learned that being smarter with time management can really help your group accomplish their goal, so I will work on doing this better in the future. I will also take the upsides and downsides of this project to help myself do better in future projects.