Rube Goldberg Reflection

 

        My rube goldberg machine demonstrated a chain reaction of levers that we used to start our machine. First someone would apply pressure to the first lever, the lever would then turn and push another lever. This would happen to three more levers. The lever however would push a marble. The marble would then roll down an incline plane to trigger the next step. Then later on in the rube we had a pulley that was triggered by a tennis ball that fell into a bucket. The weight of the tennis ball caused the bucket to go down and lift up a piece of wood allowing another tennis ball to roll and trigger the next step in the rube.

        Our rube demonstrated potential energy because there were multiple areas that had marbles or balls balancing on the edge of the next step. It demonstrates kinetic energy when the rube was in motion and things would roll down incline planes or fall. We also had to use speed in our rube because we found that the faster an object moves the more force it will hit another object with.

        We were given two problems to solve during this unit the first was is your rube was started by dropping a 7.0 gram ball 50 centimeters into a pulley system what is the potential energy. I started this problem by calculating how much 7.0g and since there are 1000g in 1kg I devided 7.0g by 1000 and got 0.007kg. I then got that the grams = 9.81 m/s² and if the height was 50 centimeters you divide that by 100 because there are 100 centimeters in one meter, = 0.5m. I then calculated that the potential energy would be 0.0343 Joules.

        The second problem we solved was for kinetic energy. We were going off the original project so when the ball lands in a bucket I knew that the mass 0.007 I then calculated for the velocity v=.45m/7. I then used that information to 7.0875 with an exponent of -4 I then solved it with the exponent and got 0.00070875 Joules.

        The design process that I used in this project was first to build up my knowledge of rubes in lessons and independent research. I then used this knowledge and put it to the test when we built the mini tubes with our small groups of three. The next thing that we did was to get into our bugger groups and begging to brainstorm ideas that we wanted to use in out final project we then each narrow that down into a smaller design. Next we compiled everyone separate designs into one drawing of everyones steps put together. The lastly we build our steps attached them to the base that we constructed and made the necessary refinements that our final project would need to function properly.

        Personally I think that the 21 century skill that I used the most in this project was creativity an example of this is when we were working on the visual aspect of our rube I came up with a concept that we could use and go off of for our satire as well as a way to design and print our rube to work and match the satire. I also had to use this skill while thinking of ways to overcome challenges such as when we forgot to add a step into our rube and just ways to redesign the project. I also used this to think of the two steps that I wanted to add into our rube.

        I think that this project really helped me to grow in my collaboration because I don't usually work in large groups and so this experience of having to collaborate with a big group definitely helped me to grow. I think that one of the main reasons for this is because I don't think that I have ever been a part of a group that big so I really had to get out of my comfort zone and to be fully open to experiencing a new thing and being able to step aside and let others have a say in what's going on and the direction the project goes in.