Our first project in STEM is the Rube Goldberg Machine. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a Machine that has a series of events happen to produce a final outcome.
Our Rube Goldberg project took us three planning days and nine build days. We also spent three to four days working on our presentations and the math behind the project. My group was awesome and we got a lot done and worked together real well. Our project is called the Party machine, because we used a good amount of decorations like candles and party hats. We also called it that because our finishing project was to release balloons into the air. Our steps and other information is below.
You can view the steps on slide #4
The major physics concepts we used are listed below.
Mechanical Advantage: A number showing how much a machine makes something easier.
Used in: Steps 2, 4, 6, 10, and 14. Equation: Distance w/tool
Distance w/o tool
Force: The push or pull on an object that causes a change in motion.
Used in: Steps 3, 5, 11, 13, and 15. Equation: Force= Mass times Acceleration. F=MA
Velocity: The rate of covered distance in a direction.
Used in: step 7. Equation: Velocity= Change in direction
Change in time
Kinetic Energy: Energy due to motion.
Used in: Step 8. Equation: KE=1/2MV squared
Potential Energy: Energy an object has due to its height or position in a gravitational pull
Used in: Step 6, 9. Equation: PE=mgh
Acceleration: The rate of change of velocity speeding up or slowing down.
Used in: Step 10. Equation: A=change in velocity divided by change in time.
Distance: Amount of space between two points.
Used in: All inclined planes. Equation: none
The parts that went well for our group was building and drilling in boards. We all worked together so building went very smoothly. The only building part that was hard was getting the motor to work. If you saw the video on the top of the page, the circular shaped part was powered by a motor. The motor would either stop working or not stay in the spot it was supposed to go in. During the project, I learned how to use a drill and other types of saws. I also learned how to draw schematics and calculate mechanical advantage better. Two things I could have done better at was not to rush when putting on boards and speaking more during the presentation. Over all, it was an awesome project and I had a lot of fun building it!