In my tech class, I was learning a bit about Rube Goldberg machines, and for my HW, I had to design one that waters a plant, so I used wick to make this odd design:
My Project11-10-2020_8-32-54PM.wick (31.8 KB)
How my Rube Goldberg machine works
The ball (colored pink) is connected to an elastic string that is connected to the desk. The book the ball is on is tilted, so the ball will roll to the left, fall off the desk, the rope will allow it to swing back, knocking the domino hopefully through the basketball hoop, otherwise the domino will still meet an inclined plane, slide down, hit more dominos, then transfer the energy to a ball making it roll and land into a bucket which then gets pushed left a bit, and falls off and goes down having the connected strings ball fly up, spinning the weird spinnable object, that hits another ball connected to a rope, causing the ball to swing to the right, then knock down the cup of water, making the water fall on the plant, and that’s how normal people water their plants.
What is a Rube Goldberg machine?
A Rube Goldberg is a name given to identify a machine that is made up of multiple components that leads to different sequences through the use of motions. Its different complex transitions are based on the cycle of cause and effect and meant to result in the completion of a simple task. The complex flow of this machine is what defines it as a Rube Goldberg machine, and simply watching its complex results fitting in place while carrying the motion from one object to another can only be as satisfying as the complexity of the machine’s structure.
(Note: I didn’t google anything)
Purpose of making a Rube Goldberg
The purpose of a Rube Goldberg machine is to complete a simple task by going through a complex process. Why would anyone wish to waste time to build such a useless machine? It’s because this type of machine shows puzzling creativity in its continuous pattern of energy transfer.
Why am I sharing this?
I’m just hoping to inspire people to create their own Rube Goldberg machines. It’s kinda fun and actually made me think with a bit more creativity… I actually feel like my head has a lot of ideas inside of it after I finished creating this machine!