“The Automatic Water Cup Filler 5000”

Krista, Angie and I worked hard to create a rube Goldberg machine that encompasses at least 3 simple machines, and 2 energy transfers. The machine starts when the steel ball is dropped through tube A on an inclined plane through the tube. This is a transfer of gravitational potential energy to mechanical energy by going down the slant. The steel ball then increases its gravitational potential energy at ramp B by going upward and the force that it has created jumps to a horizontal plane, then funneling into a cup at point C. The steel ball then passes through the cup and onto another inclined plane using more mechanical kinetic energy. The marble hits pendulum D which swings (using up gravitational energy) to knock down dominos at point E that uses sound and gravitational energy. The dominos fall on to lever F causing a marble on the other side to jump and roll down an inclined plane transferring to mechanical energy. At point G, the marble switches direction and continues to knock down a set of dominos at point H which progressively increase in size creating sound, gravitational and kinetic energy which then knock down a lever at point I. the lever causes the water to tip over at point J and pours a glass of water.

Simple machines:

Inclined plane

Lever

Pendulum

Wedge

Ramp

Energy transfers

gravitational potential energy – mechanical energy

mechanical kinetic energy – gravitational energy

Mechanical kinetic energy – sound energy and gravitational energy