TheNEW PENCIL PICKER! By, Steven 8.2
Use Simple machines to lift me up!
Introduction: This week, I have been working on a Rube Goldberg machine. Rube Goldberg was an American Cartoonist, known for drawing complex machines, that do simple tasks. Connected to that, our task was to make a machine that could perform simple things. We used simple machines such as pulleys, inclined plane, Wheel & Axle, Screw, Lever, and Wedge. I would need these simple machines to do simple things. So I made a machine that would pick a pencil, and lifting it off a platform.
In my machine, you could identify:
Lever: The lever works like a see-saw. It is made up of a fulcrum and a board. In this case, one end is pushed up, while the other end is pushed down, forming an inclined plane.
Wheel & Axle: This machine helps me to start rotating the gear. It is made of a wheel, and its handle
Inclined Plane: The inclined plane is a machine that forms a tilt, in order for the marble to roll down in a direction where the platform is tilted.
Pulley: The pulley helps to carry the pencil off the ground. When the cup and marble drops with gravity and its weight, the pencil is lift.
Energy Transfers 1. In the beginning, Chemical energy are transferred to kinetic energy. When we turn the axle, we used up the energy we stored to form moving objects to take place. 2. When the second wheel happen to hit the lever, the marble start rolling down the inclined plane. In this situation, Potential energy from the marble was converted into gravitational kinetic energy. 3. When the marble reaches one side of the pulley, the gravitational energy causes the cup to drop down, to cause the pencil to lift.
Mechanical Problem I faced In the process of making the machine, a lot of problems are made. It started with the Wheel and Axle, which wasn始t able to turn fluently. I think this may affect the chemical energy used by us. The solution I made was to restart manufacturing it. I made the rod that goes through the middle longer, which made the wheel to turn a bit faster. But the con of this improvement, was that it took some of my precious time to restart manufacturing the rod. The lever was the hardest problem I faced in this process. It took me some time to figure it out. The problem started with the lever, unable to stick up to the plastic board. To begin with, it was hard to put up a lever sticking to a wall. It took me a while, but to figure out what materials that I need to use to make the fulcrum. I solved it by using triangular-cut cardboard as it始s fulcrum. The board would need to move up and down, so I used a chopstick as part of it始s fulcrum. " From these problems, I was able to understand what I need to improve. I think I should have done a better planning of my work before starting to manufacture. I should also think of controlling my time managements.
SOURCES: "Amazing Rube Goldberg Contraptions and Invention Convention." Amazing Rube Goldberg Contraptions and Invention Convention. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://mousetrapcontraptions.com/>. "Sweet Articles." : PARABLE OF THE PENCIL. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://kitajo.blogspot.com/2011/07/parable-of-pencil.html>.