New Rube Goldberg
We started off this project by discussing ideas of what we wanted our Rube Goldberg to do. We decided we wanted a theme and our theme was going to be Summer. Once we discussed our Rube Goldberg steps and drew a rough sketch of the machines and where they would be, we drew our schematic. Once our schematic was completed, we started on building our rube Goldberg. We built our rube Goldberg Machine for about 6 days and did calculations for 1 day. This was about 2/3 of the time that we had the first time around. Although we were very limited time wise, we were able to make our project functional and efficient with a lot of work.
Concepts
- Velocity : Velocity is used to find the rate of covered distance in an direction and can be calculated in meters per second with the formula : change in distance divided by the change in time.
- Acceleration : Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity measured in meters per second squared. Acceleration can be calculated by dividing the change in velocity by the change in time.
- Acceleration due to gravity : Because we are on Earth, our acceleration due to gravity will always be about 9.8 m/s squared.
- Mass : Mass is the amount of matter measured in kilograms.
- Force : Force is a push or pull on an object and is calculated by multiplying the mass and acceleration of an object. The standard unit is newtons (N).
- Momentum : Momentum is the tendency of moving objects to stay in motion. It is calculated by multiplying the mass by the velocity and measured in NS ( Newton seconds).
- Work : Work is the amount of energy put into something and is measured in joules (J). You can work by multiplying force times distance.
- Mechanical Advantage : Mechanical advantage is how much easier a tool makes something. You can find the mechanical advantage by setting up a ratio like force with out machine divided by force with machine.
- Potential energy : Potential energy is the amount of energy an object has due to its height. The formula for potential energy is mass multiplied by acceleration due to gravity multiplied by the height and is measured in joules.
- Kinetic energy : Kinetic energy is energy due to motion and can be found by multiplying one half by the mass by the velocity squared. Kinetic energy is measured in joules.
Reflection
Overall this project went very well. My group was able to accomplish a lot of work with a very limited amount of time. Although we had some bumps in the road, like the banner not unraveling, we were able to get it fully functional in the end. In the beginning of this project, everything was working perfectly and nothing was going wrong so my group and I kind of let off the gas and took more time with things. However in the end, taking more time with certain parts of the project that could have been done a lot quicker came to bite us in the butt, because many steps in our Rube Goldberg started to not work and we had adjust them numerous times to get them to work again. The time it took to make these adjustments definitely took time away from our calculations and presentations time, and we were left with having to complete them at home. In addition, I think we could've been more efficient with our time and working to the very last second so we weren't rushed at the end. I think this is something I can continue to work on because I can get off track very easily. However on the bright side, I think I took a little more leadership roles than I've done in my previous projects. Although, I would still live to improve on the amount of leadership I put forth. This project was a great way to end the year and getting it to be fully functional was just the cherry on top.