View our presentationA detailed report of our endevours
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Here, you can find our complete presentation, including:
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This project has been fraught with difficulty from its very conception. It has been through countless revisions, incorporating many thoughts, dreams and theories. Throughout this process, it is my belief that all group members have contributed to our success. As I look back, I try and figure; what have I done? Here, I have compiled a list on what I think have done. I take this as an incomplete snapshot, not as a complete list.
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My contributionAnd a viewpoint inside our group
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Construction LogDays
Day One
Our endeavours to construct this Rube Goldberg Machine started with the independent brainstorming of individual sequences of steps. Afterwards, we came together and decided that our theme would be “The Arts”. We each cobbled together blueprints, involving no less than twelve steps, and using an ambitious six simple machines. This, we would learn, was a mistake. Day Two
One the second day, we reviewed our blueprints, got them approved, and began to search for the necessary supplies in order to construct the machine. Part of our group also started to mark out the exact placement of some objects on our board.We immediately hit a couple of snags when we discovered that as we were the later class, the earlier class had already taken a number of crucial supplies. Day Three
On the third day, some of us made our initial foray into the land of power in order to begin the construction process in earnest. However, we may have been a bit over enthusiastic, as at the end of the day, we had achieved the affixation of no less than a single piece. Day Four
On our fourth day, we started to make up for lost time, and affixed the initial plane of wood, and marked out the proceeding steps. We also started to brainstorm materials that could be used for the chute that we had planned to start our machine. Day Five
At the start of the fifth day, we attached the second “layer” of materials, including the two inclined planes coming down from the canvas, and the piece of wood immediately after the pulley. We also started to think about how to achieve our blueprint design with the first pulley. Day Six
Our sixth build day was mainly devoted to assembling the rest of the second layer and attempting to start on the final steps. We added the first pulley, but the assembly that goes along with it was not ready for final attachment. Day Seven
On our seventh build day, we began to see how little time we had left, and started to work at lunch. However, this program was interrupted by forgetful group members and conflicting schedules. We started the final lever assembly, and began to delegate the bringing of the final supplies that were still needed. Day Eight
On our penultimate build day, we began to cut out sections that would not work. We cut out the beginning ascension of the ball, and also decided to remove the screw channel from our complex system of supposedly “simple” machines. Day Nine
During our final official build day, we started to finish up the basic works of our machine, as well as starting to decorate the machine with the designs you see now. After this day, we finished the project at lunchtimes and after school, fine-tuning the details of our machine. ReflectionGoing into this project, I was rather relieved to learn that some of the brightest minds that I had known in eighth grade would be in my group. This belief, as I confirmed, was well founded. Our group was amazing at planning and creating the formulae necessary to build a machine, creating imaginative machines and steps to use in our Rube Goldberg machine. Through this project, I have found more about myself, and how I work in groups, such as that I tend to be a tad bit pessimistic. I felt that I helped a lot by being point for our presentation, increasing my knowledge of the relevant technology.
As we thought to take the best parts out of each of our individual designs and incorporate them into our main project, we did not take into account the fact that the best of our designs was most often the most complex pieces that we had to offer. Therefore, as you can see in our project, we packed together many complex systems, taking no heed of our time constraints. We should have been less ambitious, and used a lesser number of our more complex machines over a greater distance. As two more general rules, we should consider our timeline more in our brainstorming, and also be conscious of how we are doing our brainstorming. Looking back on the project as a whole, I feel rather proud of this project and the group, especially our teamwork. I am proud of the fact that all members of our group got the same score, reflecting on all our contributions. Explanation of PhysicsIn our presentation, we used some physics terms that some people may not be familiar with. For those of us that are not acquainted with scientific nomenclature, I will briefly go over some key points.
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Principles of Art DesignThe majority of our team is seriously involved with the arts, particularly music. When choosing a theme, we wanted to find something we genuinely all loved, a subject that we were passionate about, resulting in our decision to choose music. The concept of combining music and physics into one project was something that truly intrigued us. After looking over the individual cartoons and brainstorming on what we wanted our project to look like, we created our own ideal Rube Goldberg machines. All of ours were rather different and extremely ambitious, with unique ideas on the end result and the complexity of the steps that would get you there. After deciding which parts of each person’s plan we liked the best, we combined all of our favorite components into one rough blueprint. When it came to the Principles of Design, our team wanted to find the most functional plan before adding on these components. Once the blueprint was completed, we started to include the principles that would still keep the machine reasonable in terms of the building process. Rhythm can be found throughout the entire Rube Goldberg with our music theme, the most obvious example being a tambourine hit. The different sounds create a sort of pattern through the different beats and tempos, composing a mechanical orchestration. The entire machine has to come together with balance, the pulley and lever systems depending upon it. The constant visual movement is exhibited mainly through the balls, paintbrush, weights, and tee shirt. The variety of materials creates contrast throughout the machine, yet also helps the elements work together for harmony all surrounding the theme of music. The canvas and music sheets are the machine’s emphasis, due to the different color and texture. However, the three-dimensional design of all parts of the Rube Goldberg also are emphasized against the wood plank. These wood planks are of all different lengths with no proportional relationship, but mainly are short enough to stay on the board. The benefits of learning about the Principles of Design before starting our projects are to include them in our blueprint easily, achieve function and look, and to organize the structural components of design. We will implement these principles in future designs by always designing what we want each category before making a blueprint in order to achieve look and function. My overall critique of the unit as a whole is that some categories fall under others, making it difficult to discern which part goes where, as well as coming off as rather repetitive. Overview of StepsStep One: The Rube Goldberg begins with a soccer ball being pushed down a ramp onto a wood plank.
Step Two: The ball then transfers energy into 2x7 inch walnut wood plank that falls, transferring its energy into another 2x9 inch walnut board. Step Three: The second 2x9 inch wood plank attached to the ramp by a hinge falls and transfers its energy into the paintbrush, allowing the brush to swing around a screw (axle) and make contact with the side of a canvas. Step Four: The paintbrush continues its circular path to hit a metallic ball perched on the end of a wedge, making the ball roll down two inclined planes. Step Five: The ball then drops into a weighted cup, activating the pulley system to pull a lever on the opposite side upwards. Step Six: Kept in balance between two opposing wedges, a green ball is lifted along with the wooden lever by the pulley to an angle in which it rolls off the lever and into a free fall. Step Seven: The green ball lands on the top of a tambourine and then continues its path onto a wooden board with all the momentum from the free fall. Step Eight: The green ball then transfers its energy into an angled wooden block, which then pushes a forty gram weight attached by string to another pulley system off the end of the wood. Step Nine: The weight is dropped by a lever onto an inclined plane where it is stopped by a wedge at the end of the board. Step Ten: Because the weight moved forward, the other side of the pulley is moved upwards. The string on this end is tied around a tee-shirt, which is pulled out of tie dye and suspended in air. |
Documents
Project DescriptionThe ubiquitous project handout
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Overview of StepsA list of steps
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