Rube Goldberg Journal

Planning
Today we started planning our machines. Ive decided that the goal for my machine is to blow out a
candle. I am going to blow out the candle with water. I am trying to use as many simple machines I can
and so far, am using inclined planes, a wedge, pulley and levers. I am using wave, collision and change of
motion as well. Here is my plan:

I have 7 steps. Here are the steps:

1. Ball rolls down inclined plane (speed, momentum, change of motion, translational kinetic
energy).
2. Ball drops into pulley (collision, change of motion) which lifts second ball to inclined plane
(inertia).
3. Ball rolls onto lever which makes it tilt to the next platform.
4. The balls run down 2 pipes that are in a zig zag pattern which slows the ball down slightly (speed,
change of motion, collision, translational kinetic energy) and then lands on inclined plane.
5. Ball travels down inclined plane and lands on one side of hanging lever (speed, change of
motion) weight pulls side of lever down which lands the ball onto the next platform (momentum,
speed, change of motion)
6. Ball hits dominoes which causes a chain reaction as they tip over (mechanical wave, collision,
inertia, translational kinetic energy). As the last one tips over, it hits a ball which falls onto
another lever (change of motion, speed, translational kinetic energy)
7. When ball hits lever it tips over one side which has a cup of water with channel coming off it. Tips
water out which leads to candle which blows it out.
To plan my machine, I just drew the design on paper and then indicated where the different steps were. I
also added arrows to show which direction the ball was rolling. There were a few mistakes in the design
that I didnt do when I built it including the wedge in step 1, the wedge and 2nd marble on the lever in
step 3, I only did two inclined planes instead of 3 in step 4, there was no need for a barrier on the lever in
step 5 and I also added a channel for the water to run down in step 7.
 Building
Here are the materials I needed for the machine:
Board
Cardboard
String
2 pulleys
Craft pipe cleaners
Small plastic containers
Wedge
Bookmark
4 double clips
Foam bits
Pipe
Milk bottle
Small bit of metal pipe
Dominoes
2 rulers
Candle
Tape
Hot glue gun
Stanley knife
Scissors
Hacksaw
Marbles
Matches
And heres the steps to construct the machine:
1. A hot glue gun was used to stick a piece of cardboard diagonally on the top right corner of the
board.
2. The pipe cleaners were hooked onto the board and the levers threaded through them. String was
threaded through the 2 levers and on one end, small containers were stuck onto each end using
tape.
3. A wedge was stuck below the 2nd lever with a glue gun at the slightest angle.
4. A piece of cardboard was stuck on using hot glue going down diagonally.
5. The handles of a double clip were removed and the base was glued onto the boar with got glue
to make the fulcrum of the lever. A bookmark was then placed on top.
6. A piece of cardboard was stuck on using hot glue going down diagonally.
7. A pipe was cut with a hacksaw into 10-15cm lengths and hot glued onto the board. A piece of
foam was glued coming out of it to make a ramp. This was then repeated but glued on
underneath going diagonal the opposite way.
8. The corner of a milk carton was cut to make a surface for the ball to roll on. This was glued on
horizontally.
9. A bit of metal pipe was glued onto the board. Some cardboard was cut into a rectangle and string
was tied to it. The string was then tied to the metal pipe. The silver handles from the double clip
was removed a glued under one side to create a ledge for the side to rest on. This created a kind
of lever.
 10. Some cardboard was glued underneath this, and dominoes were set up in a row on it with a
domino glued underneath t support it all.
11. A lever was created below this by removing the handles from the double clip and gluing it onto
the board to create a fulcrum. 2 rulers were then taped together to make the surface wider. The
rulers were then placed on top of the fulcrum to create a lever.
12. 2 small containers were filled with water a were glued onto the rulers, one on each end (to
create balance). One of the containers lids were taken off so the water could easily flow out.
13. A corner of a milk carton was cut using a Stanley knife and glued onto the side of the lever where
the containers lid was removed. This created a channel for the water to run down.
14. A candle was placed where the channel would land if the lever was tipped.
When I started building, I drew the design onto the cardboard first. Then I started cutting everything to
size and gluing it on using a hot glue gun. I tested each simple machine with the marble and then every
time I added on another simple machine, I would test it as well with the others.
I had a problem with the lever in step 3 because the platform on the fulcrum wasnt long enough and the
ball kept rolling off the edge. In the end I just gave up and taped it up into a inclined plane.
The simple machines I used were: inclined plane, pulley, lever and wheel and axle.
The physic concepts in the machine were: wave, collision and change of motion
Another problem I had was the water not spilling out of the cup and travelling down the channel to blow
out the candle (step 7). I fixed this by simply cutting a v shape in the cup so the water was able to spill
out.
After many trials and errors, I finally completed my machine and this is what it looks like:

My video and more pics are on my website: www.ellacoffey.weebly.com

Another annoying thing that kept happening was the dominos kept tipping over when I accidently
bumped them and I had to keep putting them upright again.