Rube Goldberg Project

These past two weeks, my class and I have been working on a Rube Goldberg Project. A rube Goldberg is a bunch of steps to do something that you could do simply. My group and I had a plan to pop a balloon using at least 10 steps. Our first step was to put a tennis ball into a cup pulley that would bring the other cup upwards freeing the gravity roller. The gravity roller then rolls down and hits a empty paper towel roll. 

 After the empty paper towel roll is bumped, it then starts to knock over dominoes. As the dominoes are falling, they then go up a set of wooden steps that my partner made. They then go down the stairs. Once they are back on the table, they then take a turn and one domino hits a plastic golf ball. The plastic golf ball then falls through a plastic cup, bounces off a wedge that hits and ricochets into another line of dominoes. There are very few dominoes in this step. The last domino in the line bumps a real golf ball. The golf ball then rides down a ramp and bumps a metal car with a wooden stick with tacks taped to it facing the balloon in front of the car. The golf ball bumps the car and moves the car into the balloon and then pop goes the balloon. 

I really enjoyed this project. When we first started I was a bit overwhelmed and I had no clue what to do and how to do it But as time went on, there were enough ideas that we could do to have 10 steps and pop a balloon. My partner and I both contributed equally and we were the first group to finish the project. I hope every class gets to do this project someday.