Physics

Our Rube Goldberg consisted of multiple elements. An example of this was the inclined plane a marble fell onto that then rolled down to hit a row of dominos. The dominos could be interpreted as a lever system as well as they fall down. An area where it could have morphed into a simple machine is the pipe system. If there were the correct amount of pieces it would have been a screw.

 

Along with those simple machines, our Rube also held things like potential and kinetic energy. You could see this when out marbles were placed in a certain spot so when something else hit them they were pushed forward. The kinetic energy was shown when the marble was hit and pushed forwards. Towards the end of our Rube, we had an inclined plane with a marble prepared to fall and roll off. This is an example of inertia and momentum. There was potential energy scattered throughout our Rube with every marble placed at the edge of an area of a drop.

 

7.0 grams converts to .007 kilograms

50 centimeters converts to .5 meters

By multiplying the two conversions with 9.81 m/s (gravity) you can get the Potential Energy of 0.034335 joules

 

Mass= 7.0g = .007 kgs

Velocity= 45 cm/s = .45m/s

KE=½ (.007) (.2025)

KE= .00070875 joules

 

In the first Rube, we did (the three step Rube) a pipe system. This inspired me to also add a pipe system into ours. Our group was full of ideas...outrageous ideas a lot of which we decided to scrap. This included the idea Mason and I came up with. Most of the refinement stages were skipped which caused a lot of problems on exhibition night. Things couldn’t stand up for themselves and it fell over a lot.

 

One of the 21st-century skills that I grew in over the Rube was Critical Thinking. When my partners told me things that weren’t working it took a few minutes before I thought of a working answer. This included some steps that we later scrapped which were how to get a ball up to the start.

 

A skill I still need work on is Collaboration. Even though I did help with how to fix things I wasn’t great when I was working with my partners. I struggled a lot with talking to them and kind of went off into my own world. I thought that everyone would know what I was doing but obviously they didn’t.