The Rube Goldberg Project

Process and Collaboration Originally, we had planned an elaborate series of steps, which involved a bottle of wine, several hammers and an acid/base powered vehicle. We were then heartbroken to find that there were limitations and dimensions to abide by, so we scrapped our unnecessarily detailed ideas...for other elaborate ideas.

The New Idea Our new idea involved a G.I. Joe bazooka, a weighted-string-powered fan, Hot Wheels tracks, and a zig-zag tier track.

Revamp After running a couple of mental test runs, we decided that some of our original ideas were neither reliable, nor feasible. The zig-zag track was too bulky. The bazooka was hard to trigger. There was not enough torque to turn the fan at an efficient angular velocity.

Construction We found a small motor with a battery pack and a hairpin switch perfect for our fan. The Hot Wheels track was replaced by tubing. A catapult was substituted for the bazooka. A funnel would be used in place of the zig-zag track.

Re-revamp After assembling the Rube-goldberg, we found that the fan was not powerful enough to blow the ball as it was supposed to. We decided to drop the fan idea, and use the motor as a wench. We also put another mousetrap at the beginning to make it easier for the group before us. We also found another battery operated toy, the Rammer Hammer, and decided to use it to trigger the group after us/ electronic device.

Math Our Rube-Goldberg incorporates conservation of linear momentum, conservation of gravitational momentum, conservation of angular momentum, translational energy, collisions, angular velocity, angular acceleration, liner velocity, liner acceleration, mass moments of inertia, and rotational translational energy.

The Finished Product

The End

Team Dragon Tank

Rob Baldus

Matt Dischner

Jacob Price

John Shin