Mrlucky77 wrote on 2010-04-22 03:16
My class is doing a very small (VERY small) Rube Goldberg project for the Mechanical Systems science unit for grade 8. Please look at the following picture and give me some suggestions and questions that can help me prep for my presentation and improve on the machine.
[Image: http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/23/rubegoldbergdraft.jpg]
Melchinoir wrote on 2010-04-22 05:06
Okay first off, is it possible for you to post a more neat schematic for the machine? As it stands, I'm can't tell what the final "simple action" the machine is supposed to perform is. Now from what I can understand, what I'm wondering is once the ball has gone down that first inclined plane and proceeds down the 2nd one, where it's supposed to fall through what looks like holes, how are you going to get a second ball to go through the second hole without it falling through the first hole? (At least, from my understanding that's what it looks like it's supposed to do. If I'm wrong, please, correct me, I'm not entirely sure what the machine is supposed to be doing once the ball passes the first inclined plane and I sure as hell am lost on what those wedges are doing).
If you want some suggestions on presenting this machine to an audience, I say one of the most imperative things on your blueprint would be to sub-divide it. Like, maybe call the top portion with the winch and fixed pulley section A, the portion with the fixed pulley to the movable pulley with the hammer section B, etc etc and then that way you can explain the intra-sectional mechanics before explaining the inter-sectional mechanics and how it all comes together.