Rube-Goldberg Project

By: Cleveland May David Otten Matt Alley Alex Mavrommatis

The Team

Overview

• Design and build a Rube-Goldberg device

that will perform a simple task of your choosing.

• Our goal: To make a mouse trap alarm, when trap is sprung.

Overview Cont.

Steps:

1. Mouse trap, when sprung, initiates arm.

2. Arm swings around 270° and hits golf ball.

3. Golf ball rolls down track.

4. Half way down track golf ball hits chime.

Energy Conversions

1. The mouse trap applies a force of 9N up when sprung. (measured with scale)

2. The arm then has an vi.

3. After finding the vi it is

used in the COE to

find its vf just before

hitting the golf ball.

Energy Conversions

4. After the ball is hit it then has a vi which can be found using the COM.

5. The velocity of the ball right before it hits the chime can be found using the COE.

6. The velocity of the ball

just before it hits the end

can also be found using

the COE. (Eloss from hitting the chime is negligible)

Initial Measurements

• Mouse Trap: Force= 9N

• Arm: 12” long

Mass= .037 Kg

• Golf Ball: Mass= .0459 Kg

Initial height= 12” above datum

• Wind-chime: 12” down track

• Track: 23” long

Conclusion

It took a little bit of adjustment, but we got

it to work just the way we wanted. It was cool

to be able to design something that should

work on paper, and actually have it work

when it was built.