Rube Goldberg Machine (Semester I)
Rube Goldberg Machine-Noun: Any machine that has been designed to use as many complex and confusing steps as possible to preform a simple task disproportionate to the number of steps involved. For example, a Rube Goldberg machine would use four levers, two electronic circuits, multiple ramps an wheels and an electric train to dispense a pencil. This is exactly what our machine was built to do.
The machine begins with an inclined plane with a quarter placed at the top. The quarter is held in place by a wedge connected to a class 1 lever. when the lever is pulled, the quarter rolls down the ramp (Inclined plane) and falls into a cup attached to a pulley. The cup falls, adding an effort force to the class 1 lever below it. The load (second lever effort arm) ascends, and with it, a small marble. As the lever reaches it's maximum angle, the marble begins to roll down the lever, making it an inclined plane. the marble drops on to another class 1 lever (that appears and was to be a wheel and axle), which distributes it to another inclined plane. Since it began rolling, the marble has been gaining kinetic energy, which is then transferred to the much larger golf ball. The golf ball begins to slowly roll, an then releases it's kinetic energy onto the wheel and axle. As the wheel turns, it completes a simple circuit. This sends 18v. to the electric train. The train begins to roll, and along it's path triggers a paddle switch. This triggers the status bar, turning it from red to green. By this time, the train has reached the pencil slot and has transferred it's kinetic energy to the exposed end of the pencil. The pencil slides point-first out the slot to be claimed by the paying customer (or into the leg of the unwary student who happens to be standing nearby).
Our machine was not only designed to preform one simple task (besides proving Murphy's law), it was also created to incorporate the 5 simple machines covered in class. The first of the 5 was the inclined plane (4 where used in the machine). The inclined plane increases the distance necessary to raise an object to a certain height, decreasing the the amount of force necessary. (think ramp vs. ladder). We also used numerous levers in the machine. A lever can increase your output force at the expense of the output distance or vice-versa. Wheelbarrows and catapults are good examples. One pulley was included in the second step. That specific pulley had only directional advantage, but other kinds can have mechanical advantage, depending on the number of supporting ropes. We see wheels and axles every day, mostly on bicycles and automobiles. They can be simplified to the point that you can say they are like levers that rotate 360 degrees. The farther away the effort gets from the center, the more torque is created. The last simple machine is the screw. We did not include one on our machine, due to their difficulty to manufacture. Screws are basically the circular version of the inclined plane; the sloped surface curves around a center point. This is especially useful in manufacturing. Much force can be applied to hold two objects together in a very small space.
Obviously, the construction of our Rube Goldberg pencil dispenser did not go go completely as planned. Our original designed called for miniature roller coaster tracks, buckets of marbles, and extraneous ramps for toy cars. Since the beginning, we made quite a few changes to the original design. Once we cleared those early hurdles, the project went smoothly from then on. Due to having experience with tools and electronics, I was able to construct a portion of the moving parts along with all of the circuitry (train circuits and activation lights). I also learned of the usefullness of a dremmel rotary tool (I really must get one of those). Along with those successes, I found that advance planning would have been something nice to have from the start of the project. It was not until a few weeks before the presentation that we learned that critical elements of the machine would be unavailable. Had we known earlier, we would have been able to compensate quicker; instead, we improvised, hence the addition of an electric train instead of a toy roller coaster track. Another problem was Murphy's law in action. Basically what this means is that what can go wrong, inevitably will go wrong. This held true for every step of the machine. During the de-bugging process, everything that could possibly fail dis so in a matter of hours. We eventually got the machine working over 50% of the time (not bad for a Rube goldberg machine), but we could gave spent more time adjusting the machine to make it more reliable.
Our machine was not only designed to preform one simple task (besides proving Murphy's law), it was also created to incorporate the 5 simple machines covered in class. The first of the 5 was the inclined plane (4 where used in the machine). The inclined plane increases the distance necessary to raise an object to a certain height, decreasing the the amount of force necessary. (think ramp vs. ladder). We also used numerous levers in the machine. A lever can increase your output force at the expense of the output distance or vice-versa. Wheelbarrows and catapults are good examples. One pulley was included in the second step. That specific pulley had only directional advantage, but other kinds can have mechanical advantage, depending on the number of supporting ropes. We see wheels and axles every day, mostly on bicycles and automobiles. They can be simplified to the point that you can say they are like levers that rotate 360 degrees. The farther away the effort gets from the center, the more torque is created. The last simple machine is the screw. We did not include one on our machine, due to their difficulty to manufacture. Screws are basically the circular version of the inclined plane; the sloped surface curves around a center point. This is especially useful in manufacturing. Much force can be applied to hold two objects together in a very small space.
Obviously, the construction of our Rube Goldberg pencil dispenser did not go go completely as planned. Our original designed called for miniature roller coaster tracks, buckets of marbles, and extraneous ramps for toy cars. Since the beginning, we made quite a few changes to the original design. Once we cleared those early hurdles, the project went smoothly from then on. Due to having experience with tools and electronics, I was able to construct a portion of the moving parts along with all of the circuitry (train circuits and activation lights). I also learned of the usefullness of a dremmel rotary tool (I really must get one of those). Along with those successes, I found that advance planning would have been something nice to have from the start of the project. It was not until a few weeks before the presentation that we learned that critical elements of the machine would be unavailable. Had we known earlier, we would have been able to compensate quicker; instead, we improvised, hence the addition of an electric train instead of a toy roller coaster track. Another problem was Murphy's law in action. Basically what this means is that what can go wrong, inevitably will go wrong. This held true for every step of the machine. During the de-bugging process, everything that could possibly fail dis so in a matter of hours. We eventually got the machine working over 50% of the time (not bad for a Rube goldberg machine), but we could gave spent more time adjusting the machine to make it more reliable.
The photo at right is the schematic diagram for our Rube Goldberg Machine. If you can actually see the details (I can't), congratulations. At the top right are the circuit schematics coherent to the aesthetic aspects I mentioned earlier.