Hephaestus

Team Alpha Nathan Young Ben Simpson Aaron Ross Sherri Lark

The Construction Hephaestus, the entire design process took approximately ten hours from the brain storming of the contraption to the final testing. The construction itself had a few difficulties. The teams are unable to use the table saw to cut several of the parts, so instead hours of manual cutting is needed. Another problem the team faced was the cheap mousetrap that is used. The entire project was executed well to have an extremely low percent error. Out of the twenty times the team tested the device, only one of the experiments was a failure.

Energy Conversions Hephaestus relies on the potential energy of gravity calculated by the formula mass*force of gravity*height of object. The energy is converted from the marble to the truck which hits a mousetrap. The mousetrap does not relay its energy to the scissors, but the tension in the scissors cuts the rope that holds up a weight which falls due to gravity.

Overview Hephaestus is a combination of four simple devices put together to make a complex machine. This idea of putting simple devices together to do a simple task is known as a Rube Goldberg machine. The 1st device is the marble that rolls down two tubes. The 2nd contraption is the truck that drives down the small track The 3rd mechanism is the mousetrap; this device does nothing without the string that is connected to the scissors The 4th machine is the scissors that have a rubber band around the handles. This machine slices through the string that holds the weight at a calculated position.

Conclusion The Rube Goldberg devices are an inefficient way of performing a task. The goal of any Engineering student should be to create a simplistic machine that performs the necessary task. This project shows just how inefficient machines can be, and teaches the students to think creatively to complete any task put before them.