Science

Rube Goldberg – Post #2

by cmou29

RUBE GOLDBERG – POST #2

 

I built my Rube Goldberg machine in no time, surely, that was pretty easy. Now, the hard part was filming(my god, it was so, so, so frustrating). I filmed with my mom’s phone, no problem. But, my mom would sometimes complain about me filming for too long. I had to film every single try, each try seemed to have some problems that I thought would work. When building from your sketch, you wouldn’t realize that some parts actually won’t work. To think of it, you have to know reality. When I was building, I kept on telling myself: reality, Cindy, think of reality. I finished filming in 2 days(that was 2 frustrating days), and I took a little break from that hard work.

Designing: no problem at all! Designing was easy, just think of it, drawing a probably-not-going-to-work sketch is super duper easy. I had millions and millions of ideas already swirling in my mind, now I need support on which one to pick. I watched some past student videos(Heathcote Tech). But when I watched a video on a cat feeder, from Joseph’s Machines, there we go, cat feeder it is. 

I learned something super important from this project: you cannot assume that your sketch will work. First of all, the sketch will not be the same unless you make it short and simple, and reality-like. My machine turned out completely different, I even had to change the simple task that it does at the end. I also realized that some parts needed to be changed and that some parts really couldn’t work, like, the end. I tried it out, just the last step, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The pulley I made didn’t work either. Lots of things didn’t work the way I expected it to be. 

My experience with making the video was much more fun than filming, especially because it lets me do whatever I want! Although I didn’t like the downloading part(It absolutely made me bust into frustration). Making videos was something I always enjoyed(not very), but what I most liked is how the whole video came out. I love watching it over and over again, such a nice experience. 

There were a lot of frustrating parts, especially when building this machine. So many things needed to be changed and it was really hard to build the whole thing with utterly nothing(but cardboard, tape, dominos, and balls). When filming the machine, the most frustrating part was setting up the dominos over and over again. It kept on knocking over each other and setting the machine off when it was not supposed to. Every time I had to keep on setting it up multiple times. Although it was frustrating, I loved the surprise I gained when I saw the cage was open.

I really enjoyed this unit, not the part where we had to film, but it was amazing. It was much better than the other units we did in the past. It really made my creativity spark in the way I made my machine. I’m quite proud that I produced and filmed and made everything(as you can see, on the credits, everything is made by me). I thought this unit was very fun and I wish we will be able to do something like this more often.

Final Sketch

WeVideo

Rube Goldberg – Post #1

by cmou29

Rube Goldberg

I think this project is very interesting, mostly because it wasn’t stuff like research, writing, and lots and lots of work about history or things that I don’t find very interesting. This project is building a Rube Goldberg machine, a machine, built by our bare hands, that goes through complex steps to do a simple task. First, we had to sketch our machine, it had to be carefully labeled, neat, and not rushed. Then, we started gathering materials for our machine and start building it and testing it out. 

What was challenging? I’d say thinking of how things will work out, or if things will work and the machine will run smoothly. Something else I also found challenging was building the machine itself. I had to test a sort-of model of some steps to see if it will work, but I’m pretty sure those models won’t show what it will turn out to be. I didn’t research much, I mostly just looked at videos of machines other people did for inspiration and for things I can add to my machine. I also looked at some articles. Once I looked at this video called “The Cat Feeder”, I knew what I was going to do. I thought it was very interesting, so I decided to call mine the “Cat Feeder” and feed the cat.

 I had a hard time testing my machine, but the first step went pretty well. It was kind of cool testing a machine you made(I didn’t build the whole thing yet), and then start squealing because it worked. Looking at the whole machine breaking up wasn’t nice, since you just finished setting it up, and knowing that you have to set it up again. 

What was frustrating – It’s very hard to explain. First, my house isn’t the place where everything is, so I usually can’t find good material to use. But what helped was that I wrote down a list of everything I needed for this machine, that way, I know exactly what I need. Not just wandering around the house, looking for something to use. For example, I was trying to find something to use as a wheel, I tried a hair tie, a smaller hair tie, a stuck-up tape(in the shape of a wheel), and even a marshmallow, but they all didn’t work! I was so frustrated, I just couldn’t find what I needed. Secondly, building the machine. It took about 1-2 hours just to set up the first few steps. I had to use a lot of tapes to tape the pieces of cut-out cardboard onto the wall or the window sill. I had to look at the height, placing, angle, everything. That was so, so, so frustrating.

 I had to make many revisions, whether it was so that the rest would be easier, or it was in the wrong place. These revisions were hard to make, especially if you taped it hard onto the wall already. When I was building the first step, I realized that it was way too high, but I already stacked things up and taped the cardboard piece on the window. It was quite hard, but not everything about this project is the worst. I also had some big “aha” moments, big insights about my success. When I tried out the first few steps, it worked! I was thrilled, the way it worked was awesome. I screamed when it worked. Well, it was after a lot of work, so it deserved a big yes, and some screaming. It’s awesome when something finally works after many tries and work. Even though this is frustrating and challenging, I still find it much more interesting to do than other things.

Electromagnet

by cmou29

Today in class, we learned how to test an electromagnet’s strength. We tested to wrap a quarter, a half, a three quarter, and one whole of the wire around the bolt. People have different opinions. Some people think that the less wire you wrap around the bolt, the stronger it is. Other people think that the more wire you wrap around the bolt, the stronger it is. It turns out that the more wire you wrap around the bolt, the stronger it is.

I wonder how does all of this work? How does the magnet get so powerful? Well, I guess that I have to find that out myself. Electromagnets are temporary, because you can take it apart or the battery had run out, or you disconect the wire. If those stuff happens then it won’t work.

When it was time to clean up, it was very messy. But overall it was very fun.