Second Meeting: Rube Goldberg Machines - Toph's Take

Simplicity may be a virtue, but not in this case. :)

What I failed to make clear in my last posts is that the point of this exercise was to make a complicated Rube Goldberg machine -- which I called, for want of better words (which I have now found), a "simple machine," when in fact it is a string of simple machines (levels, pulleys, weights, ramps, and so on) put together. For an excellent example of what we were attempting, watch the amazing "Cog" Honda advert, which we showed to the contestants before they began.

In any case, I maintain that our loss was not as pathetic as Vivek made it out to be. ;-) The design was sound; we just ran out of time for fine tuning. Yes, we lost, but we put up a good fight.

Here is how the two machines worked, with steps marked.

Winners

1. A marble is dropped down a looped ramp
2. The marble knocks a ping pong ball onto a metal cart on a metal track
3. The cart rolls off the track...
4. ...down a ramp...
5. ...and onto a padded chair

Losers

While our lack of fine-tuning meant that the machine never worked from start to finish (we got the individual parts to work, and even got through a couple steps in a row), here is our design:

1. A ping pong ball is dropped down a cardboard tube
2. The ping pong ball hits half of a straightened paper on its way through the tube, which acts as a level to push a marble down a second tube
3. The ball and marble roll into two cups on a metal cart -- marble on the bottom, ping pong ball on top -- on a metal track
4. The force of impact knocks the cart back on its tracks, which pulls a weight attached to the cart by a string off the edge of a table
5. The weight falls, pulling the cart to the end of the track
6. The cart is jolted to a stop by a metal gate at the end of the track, knocking the ping pong ball out of its cup and into a tube
7. Both machines end similarly: our ball, too, rolls onto a table and off the edge

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Note that we had no time for the potato gun "Ballistic Battle" mentioned in my earlier preview. It has been delayed until our third meeting.

Long-Term Goals

Vivek already posted the brainstorming notes from our last meeting, but I thought I'd elaborate on a few points.

Robotics

There are several robotics competitions that we could theoretically enter -- and, at some point, we hope to. We'll start small, with things like LEGO Mindstorms and other kits, and perhaps build our way up to more fun, useful, crazy ideas.

Like a hovering robot... oo....

With a mounted potato gun...

Ooo....

Hovercraft

Unfortunately, a hovercraft like the one we're hoping to eventually make (see earlier post) is extremely hard to build and would take a very, very long time. We're certainly still hoping to make one -- it will just take a long, long time. :)

Cloning

While I'm certainly happy people are enthusiastic about throwing out wild ideas -- that's the whole point of brainstorming, after all -- this one's, well, just a wee little bit unlikely.

Not to mention illegal.

So I'd say we won't be cloning any time soon...

:-)

Second Meeting - Preview

Hi, my name is Toph Tucker. I'm one of the co-founders of the BSEC, and will probably be posting here a lot.

Although Vivek mentioned it earlier, here's a preview of our second meeting, which will be happening on Friday, October 28 in the Physics room (S5) below the Library.

Simple Machines Contest

In our first-ever competition, each group (you may work in pairs of two, with one group of three if we have an odd number of participants) must build a simple Rube Goldberg machine. The task (subject to change) is to move a ping pong ball through the most number of steps. (For example, rolling down a tube would be one step; falling into a cup might be another.)

We will supply materials. The rough list follows:

• Ping Pong Balls
• Straws
• Balloons
• Paper Cups
• Cardboard Tubes
• Paper
• String
• Paper Clips
• Rubber Bands

We will also supply basic construction materials:

• Tape
• Glue
• Scissors

We hope to see all club members there! Start planning!

Potato Gun Contest

In our first Ballistic Battle, two potato guns square off to see which can shoot the farthest. Stay tuned!