Rube Goldberg Machine Journal

9/5/17, 12/5/17

Today was the first lesson of SRT for the term. In this lesson, people were assorted into different
projects. I was chosen into the Rube Goldberg project where I had to create a machine that required
using many steps to achieve a goal. The objective I chose was to pop a balloon. During single lesson
on Friday, I started Grok learning for the term from chapter four.

16/5/17, 19/5/17

In this lesson, I drew the start of the blueprint for my machine. I

decided to use three different marbles and a dart, in order to pop
the balloon. The blueprint consists of a marble which rolls down a
slope, down a wedge and inclined plane, until it reaches a cup.
The marble then weighs the cup down causing a smaller ball in
the other cup to roll out to hit a dart causing it to swing forward
and pop the balloon. After drawing my blueprint, I went on Grok
learning and continued working on chapter four. Fridays single
lesson, was mainly spent working on chapter four on Grok
learning.

23/5/17, 26/5/17

Today, I mainly worked on finding the right materials for my

blueprint. I also added more to my blueprint. I decided to use
wood for the inclined plane and use cups and string for the pulley.
In the single lesson on Friday, I completed chapter four on Grok
learning.

30/5/17, 2/6/17

On Tuesday, I labelled the blueprint a bit more and worked on the

questions. On Friday, I started and finished half of chapter five on
Grok learning.

6/6/17, 9/6/17

This week, I worked on the questions and added steps to my

blueprint. The first step is the marble rolling down the wedge and
inclined planes. The second step is the marble knocking down a
bigger ball down the ramp and up. The third step was the marble
entering the bucket causing the other bucket to move left
knocking the marble out. The forth step is the marble rolling down
the inclined plane until the dart is knocked. The fifth and last step
is the dart swinging forward into the balloon popping it.
13/6/17, 16/6/17

This Tuesday, I started looking at where to buy the

materials and what I could use from recyclable
material. I also labelled the simple machines that
are in the blueprint. During the singe on Friday, I
worked on the questions in the workbook.

20/6/17, 23/6/17

This week, I decided to change my

diagram as it was too difficult to make,
and the machine wouldnt work properly.
I decided to make it simpler, but contains
more simple machines. This new blueprint
would also make it easier to pop the
balloon, as the needle has more inertia
and speed. This blueprint will start off
with the wheel and axle moving on top of
inclined planes which then knocks a lever
causing the dominos to fall into a cup
balancing on a wedge. The weight from
the dominos then cause the ball on the
other end to bounce out onto another
inclined plane until the ball lands in a cup,
weighing down the cup with a needle
attached to the bottom causing the balloon to pop.

27/6/17, 30/6/17

This week, I had a look at what materials I had in my household and I did not have a wheel and axle
so I decided to replace it with a marble. I also did not have dominos, so I decided to buy them at a
later date. I spent the lesson making a pulley out of paper, an empty bottle and string.
4/7/17, 7/7/17

This Tuesday, I made a third and final

decision to change the blueprint for my
machine. I decided to make it more
suitable for the materials that are in my
household. The blueprint consists of
four simple machines. When the marble
is placed, it rolls down two inclined
planes and wedges until it rolls down
the pipe into the empty bottle filled
with water. The marble will then cause
the water level to rise into the straw.
The water will then wet the strip of
toilet paper, causing the top half to
snap off from the pressure. The top half
will then knock the platform causing
the first ball to roll down, collecting the other three as it goes. Then, all four of the balls will descend
down a ramp onto another ramp, through a hole until they all land in a plastic cup. The plastic cup
which is attached to a lever with a needle on it, will weigh down the right side of the lever causing
the left side with the needle to rise up to pop the balloon.

11/7/17, 14/7/17

During the week, I labelled the blueprint

showing the events that happen in more
detail. The arrows indicate the course that
the objects will go through. There are seven
steps to the machine. The first step is where
the marble rolls down the inclined planes
and wedges. The second step is when the
marble enters the bottle filled with water
causing the water to travel through the
straw. The third step is when the water wets
the toilet paper and weakens the grip
causing half the toilet paper and the
paperclip to rise. The fourth step is the
paperclip knocking the board up causing the
first small ball to roll down. The fifth step are
the small balls collecting each other until they roll down the ramps. The sixth step is when all four of
the small balls fall into the plastic cup, weighing the right side of the lever to sink down causing the
left side with the needle to rise. The seventh and last step is the balloon being popped from the
needle completing the objective.
18/7/17, 21/7/17

During the weekend, I conducted my experiment. The

machine was built using recycled materials and didnt
need to spend money to construct the machine. Most
of the materials used in the machine are: Wood,
Marble, Small ball, Polystyrene Triangles, Cardboard
ramps, Cardboard strips, Toilet roll, Empty Plastic
Bottle, Straw, Pins, Tape, Glue, Bowl, Safety Tape,
String, Balloon, Plastic cup, Needle. The experiment
altogether took many attempts, some very close to
finishing. However, when everything worked properly,
the goal was achieved. During the lessons, I recorded
my results into the work booklet, and filled in the
materials list.

25/7/7, 28/7/17

On Tuesday, I had uploaded everything onto my website. I was able to insert pictures into the
website but was unable to add videos, so I only added the pictures. After a single, we had the
relationship education so I was not able to get much done. On Friday, I finished most of the
paragraphs.

1/7/17

Today, I finished the rest of my paragraphs and everything else to be handed in on Friday.