Rube Goldberg Machines

<p>Welcome to the Wacky World of Rube Goldberg! &quot;What is a Rube Goldberg?&quot;&nbsp;you may ask! A Rube Goldberg is both a person and an overly complex machine that performs simple tasks.</p>

<p>We will talk about the real Rube Goldberg in the next step, but for now, we should talk about the objectives of this project:</p>

<ul>
<li>You will explore simple machines and energy transfer.</li>
<li>You will understand different applications/forms of kinetic and potential energy in your machine and how those types of energies assist in the machine&#39;s function</li>
<li>You will &quot;build a worse mousetrap.&quot; The objective will be to capture a mouse (or other imaginary critter) that trips/triggers the start of your Rube Goldberg device. You will set into motion several energy transfers and ultimately trap the mouse under a cup!</li>
</ul>

<p>So let&#39;s get started!</p>

<h1>Overview</h1>

<p>In this step, you will learn about Rube Goldberg and his cartoon contraptions. You&nbsp;will analyze one of his cartoons to try to understand what is going on in the cartoon and then you&nbsp;will get the caption that explains the steps. You will&nbsp;then determine if this is a reasonable set of steps to complete the task.</p>

<h1>Who Was Rube Goldberg?</h1>

<p>Rube Goldberg (drawn below)&nbsp;was a trained engineer who used his engineering-thinking mind to design overly complicated machines. He also shared these machines as cartoons. He created over 50,000 cartoons and drawings over his 72-year career!</p>

<p><img alt="Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/science/exploring-an-inventors-cartoons-in-the-art-of-rube-goldberg.html" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/12/10/science/10SCIB2/10SCIB2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale" style="height: 316px; width: 250px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>

<p>Below is a copy of one of his cartoons. He labeled the steps of the Rube Goldberg Machine as steps A, B, C, and so on. But, his machines were not called Rube Goldberg machines, they were named after him in honor of his creations and his cartoon legacy.<br />
<img src="/api/storage/uploads/legacy-images/vf8cwv0w33clno2vt1bf3o3uv2cs/Self-operating_napkin_(Rube_Goldberg_cartoon_with_caption).jpg" style="width: 404px; height: 225px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></p>

<p><strong>Can you explain, to your table mate or group mates,&nbsp;the series of events between steps A and M that result in the napkin wiping the man&#39;s mouth?</strong></p>

<p>After giving your own interpretation of this Rube Goldberg cartoon, check <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LSbzmRia6b0AS6Pb-gXF543Yi33OKk7I/view?usp=sharing">here</a> for the picture with the caption.</p>

<p>How close were you to the artist&#39;s interpretation? Do you think this machine would work? Do you think this was a reasonable set of steps to take to wipe your face with a napkin?</p>

<p>After mulling that over, we&#39;re going to be talking about slightly more practical Rube Goldberg Machines in the next step.</p>

<h1>Overview</h1>

<p>In this step, you will watch a short YouTube video of a Rube Goldberg machine that incorporates the six simple machines. Then, you will review those simple machines and their applications.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Now that you have seen some of the zany contraptions in Rube Goldberg&#39;s comics, let&#39;s talk about more &#39;practical&#39; Rube Goldberg machines. I say &#39;practical&#39; because they still have a lot of extra steps, but they don&#39;t rely on squawking birds, rockets, or sickles to complete the task (at least the ones you will construct here won&#39;t).</p>

<p>As you watch this video, see if you can identify the six simple machines used in this Rube Goldberg machine.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2QYxYp-D2J4" title="Rube Goldberg 6 Simple Machines" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>Did you find them all? You might have to watch the video a few times to get them all. If you don&#39;t have them all, check with your facilitator to see if they can give you any hints!</p>

<p>After you can identify all the simple machines, watch this review on the six different simple machines:</p>

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<p>After you review the six simple machines, we can move on and discuss energy!</p>