June 2018 archive

Rube Goldberg Project 2018

For this project I worked with Kennedy and Odett to build a machine with a task of pouring cereal into a bowl. Our thought process was that when we fill up one of the cups the mass will outweigh the second cup which will then lift up the lever pouring cereal into the bowl.

Our machine used many different types of energy including gravitational, mechanical, potential, kinetic and sound.

The systems we used are ramps (C, E, F, H), wheel and axel (G), a pulley (K) and a lever (L).

The first step on the right side starts at point (A) with the marble going through the toilet paper roll which goes from potential energy to kinetic. The marble goes through a hole in the bridge (C) into the cart (D) and onto the decline ramp (F) into the 1st cup (I) on the pulley system (K). On the left side the marble goes along the straw slide (B) through the bridge (C) onto the ramp (E) along the spinner (G) down the curvy path (H) and into the same cup (I). For energy, gravitational is used at all the points. Mechanical is used at points K and L. Potential is at points A and B but the energy changes to kinetic once it goes through point C. The sound energy is coming from the sound of the marbles as it goes through the course.