Rube Goldberg Project
Name_________________________
Background: Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who illustrated complex devices that perform simple
tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. (Google “Rube Goldberg” for examples)
Purpose:
Your objective for this project to demonstrate your knowledge of the engineering
principles of Mechanical Advantage by designing, creating and explaining a Rube Goldberg device.
The device will be triggered by a single input and continue unaided through a chain of consequences
with at least 5 simple machines, which demonstrate your understanding of the specific physical
principles listed below.
Product:
1)
2)
3)
4)
There are 4 main products required for this project:
An actual Rube Goldberg device that the student has to demonstrate.
An annotated(labeled) sketch of your Rube Goldberg machine.
An analysis showing the Mechanical Advantage of 2 of the machines in your Rube
Goldberg machine, using measured values to calculate the M.A.
A reflection on the 3D part that you were responsible for printing.
Suggestions: Internet sites such as youtube are a good source of ideas for possible mechanisms or
types of mechanisms that can be used in your project.
It often helps to take each principle and brainstorm an mechanism for that individual principle, first,
and then brainstorm a way to connect each mechanism (directly or perhaps you will have to add an
intermediate step between them.)
Create a rough draft on paper first to collect your thoughts.