Rube Goldburg Project
A project all about using simple machines to construct complex pieces of moving art and the physics behind it.
In this rube, you can see the conservation of energy in the form of every step building off the last and never losing the energy that it had, only changing it. You see this in steps such as the spiral when the marble maintains its energy down the whole track. You can see an example of an energy transfer in steps such as the domino chain.
A simple machine is a mechanism that has very few parts and makes work easier. In this rube, I have a screw (the 720 spiral), levers (the latch holding the marble to the track, wheel and axel (the fingerboard), pulley (the pulley that closes the computer), wedge (the Nerf dart) and inclined plane (the marble track). For my challenge step, I chose the 720 degree spiral and made this by twisting a Hot Wheels track and sending a marble down it, making two full rotations.
My number one takeaway from this project is how these 6 simple machines make up ever single complex machine we have at a very small level. This interests me because it shows how many different way to combine these there are to make all sorts of complex contraptions. I had a lot of trouble finding a good time to build this because it took up my whole kitchen so rather than building it bit by bit over a long period of time, I built the whole thing in one sitting so it wasn't in the way for days on end. I felt like I could easily stick to my design plan while building this. I used every resource that I planned on using and i never felt like I didn't have the right pieces.
A simple machine is a mechanism that has very few parts and makes work easier. In this rube, I have a screw (the 720 spiral), levers (the latch holding the marble to the track, wheel and axel (the fingerboard), pulley (the pulley that closes the computer), wedge (the Nerf dart) and inclined plane (the marble track). For my challenge step, I chose the 720 degree spiral and made this by twisting a Hot Wheels track and sending a marble down it, making two full rotations.
My number one takeaway from this project is how these 6 simple machines make up ever single complex machine we have at a very small level. This interests me because it shows how many different way to combine these there are to make all sorts of complex contraptions. I had a lot of trouble finding a good time to build this because it took up my whole kitchen so rather than building it bit by bit over a long period of time, I built the whole thing in one sitting so it wasn't in the way for days on end. I felt like I could easily stick to my design plan while building this. I used every resource that I planned on using and i never felt like I didn't have the right pieces.
Photos of Physics Project
For this project, we started our learning by building background knowledge about all the different types of waves, specifically light waves with the intention of creating a camera obscura or a pinhole camera. For our final product, we took a picture of a physics phenomenon involving light waves.
My biggest strength in this project was understanding the content. I am able to learn very fast if I put my mind to it and I can explain my learning to others. One example of this was during our electromagnetic spectrum and simple spectroscopes lab. In this lab, we observed different types of gasses being heated up to emit light. When viewed through a spectrometer, you can see the individual wavelengths of light as distinct and separate colors in a repeating pattern. This works because when light hits a medium, different colors have different wavelengths, so the colors move at different paces through the lens. This makes it appear as though all the colors are separate.
My biggest challenge during this project was trying to go deeper with my learning and connect it to everyday life. I really enjoy photography so I wanted to learn how to use light to my advantage in photos. A challenge with this was with my technology because my phone wouldn’t let me share pictures. I got a new phone with a better camera and my pictures have really improved since. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different and new camera tricks and trying to take more pictures at night and some of them turned out really good. Moving forward, I will be able to share pictures and videos so this won’t be a problem any longer. My goal is to just turn everything in on time that I can.
My number one takeaway from this project is what I learned about lighting in photography. I was able to get some interesting pictures and I want to keep working on my photos in the future. Refer to my “Photography” page here on my digital portfolio. I think that photography is the most real world example I can think of for my learning in this project. I take pictures every day so learning how they work was very interesting.
As a scientist, my knowledge was expanded when we made our own cameras. It was so cool to begin to understand how photography works and to actually take a picture from the very beginning of making the camera, all the way to developing our pictures. Even though my picture didn’t turn out looking like anything recognizable, I really enjoyed the process.
I feel that I did a pretty good job on this project. I think that I could have done better with turning in work on time, but the work that I did get done, I was almost always proud of. In school in general, starting an assignment is always the hardest part for me, but once I do start I can get it done fast and well. Overall, I am proud of what I have learned and accomplished during this unit.
My biggest challenge during this project was trying to go deeper with my learning and connect it to everyday life. I really enjoy photography so I wanted to learn how to use light to my advantage in photos. A challenge with this was with my technology because my phone wouldn’t let me share pictures. I got a new phone with a better camera and my pictures have really improved since. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different and new camera tricks and trying to take more pictures at night and some of them turned out really good. Moving forward, I will be able to share pictures and videos so this won’t be a problem any longer. My goal is to just turn everything in on time that I can.
My number one takeaway from this project is what I learned about lighting in photography. I was able to get some interesting pictures and I want to keep working on my photos in the future. Refer to my “Photography” page here on my digital portfolio. I think that photography is the most real world example I can think of for my learning in this project. I take pictures every day so learning how they work was very interesting.
As a scientist, my knowledge was expanded when we made our own cameras. It was so cool to begin to understand how photography works and to actually take a picture from the very beginning of making the camera, all the way to developing our pictures. Even though my picture didn’t turn out looking like anything recognizable, I really enjoyed the process.
I feel that I did a pretty good job on this project. I think that I could have done better with turning in work on time, but the work that I did get done, I was almost always proud of. In school in general, starting an assignment is always the hardest part for me, but once I do start I can get it done fast and well. Overall, I am proud of what I have learned and accomplished during this unit.