GROWING UP GOLDBERG

FROM BOARD GAME TO EF 151

Team: Wesley King, Josh Elam, Kelsey McCoy

THEN

NOW

Materials

PVC pipe (halved) Golf ball Wood (frame, beam,

ramp, pivot point) Blue string UT Souvenir cup Rocks Dowel Rods

Cotton ball Blue sand Mouse traps (3) Pulley UT VOLS sign

Salvaged Bought/Made

So…what does it do?

Golf ball travels down tubing

Ball leaves ramp and sets off mouse trap chain

Final trap pulls stopper Sand fills cup Beam tips to release

wood Pulley defers motion to

heavy weight to pull sign down

How does it work?

Rolling Without Slipping Velocity at the bottom of the ramp: 3.12

mph Center of Mass

Sand must weigh .986 lbs. to pivot on the rod

Rotational Motion Tension in string: 7.55 lbs. Angular acceleration: 708 ft/s2

Mass Moment of Inertia Golf ball: 13,287 g-mm2

Troubleshooting

What design obstacles did we face?

What held us back/slowed us down?

What would we do differently?

Transition from design on paper to actual working device

Proper tools to cut PVC pipe Design changes or alterations Fatigue failure of blue string on

mouse traps

Eliminate first day standstill by preparing tools/materials in advance

The Rube Goldberg device project allowed us to use our physics knowledge from EF 151 to not only design a working device, but also to translate the on-paper design to an actual, working machine.

Conclusion