The Rube Goldberg Project is in the simplest terms a chain reaction to do a simple task in our case pulling a trigger. The project was in a large part about different types of potential and kinetic energy. Our group tried to incorporate as many different kinds of energy as we could. We used lots of calculations to convert weight or tension to work.
1. What hands on skills did you learn through working in your group? (construction, problem solving, collaboration, design, time management, etc...)
I definitely learned a lot about problem solving, it was very common for materials to go missing, be broken or just not be available. Many times we had to make our own materials like filling a ping pong ball with water to replace a golf ball.
4. What one physics concept from your analysis is most important to the overall function of your rube.
The pulley i’d have to say is the biggest help, it reversed the direction of the rube giving us more room to incorporate our final step.
5. What was the hardest part of doing this project, how did you persevere?
Working with others was one of the hardest parts, specifically effectively communicating with my group members. The workload felt uneven at times and it generally ended in frustration but eventually we worked out some differing ideas and it came together.