RUBE GOLDBERG
T-Pak Attack
Allen Huang
Peter Laciano
Kevin Shi
Project Goals
• Use creativity and available materials to design a
contraption.
• Base principles on Rube Goldberg designs and
series of causes and effects.
• Understand the laws of physics surrounding the
resulting actions of our machine.
• Score an epically awesome goal in Foosball!
Project Goals
Sequence of the Final Set-Up
Vibrating phone  slide down incline  knock
K’Nex spinner  spinner/domino sequence 
knock dominoes up incline  knock marble down
books  hit golf ball down ramp into support 
cup lowered and golf ball released down ramp 
ball hits yo-yo  yo-yo drops into cup starting
lever sequence  ramp lowered by string 
Project Goals
Sequence of the Final Set-Up (cont.)
 golf ball rolls off incline onto Go board  ball
hits sequence of books  last book falls pulling
down attached basketball  weight of basketball
pulls handle on Foosball table  Foosball player
spins and hits ball into goal
Results and What was Learned
Results:
Learned:
• Overcame difficulties
– Setting up long, complex
sequences of dominoes
– Releasing ball from cup
– Devising mechanism to
drop basketball off table
– Getting Kevin Shi’s phone
to send message
• Accomplished goal
• Precision in cause and effects
– Orientation
– Distance
– Force
• Reality of simple machine
creation
– Level of complication
– Availability of materials
Physics Principles
• Law of Conservation of Energy energy cannot be created or
destroyed; only changes forms
• Rotation - moment of inertia;
torque; e.g. k’nex spinners
• Projectiles - vectors; e.g. yo-yo
• Incline Plane parallel/perpendicular force;
friction; e.g. golf ball down ramp
• Center of Mass - velocity center
of mass; collisions; e.g. dominoes
hitting marble
Areas for Additional Study
• vibrations; tremors
(vibrating cell phone)
• structures; buildings
(ascending ramp for
dominoes)
• radio waves (initial cell
phone text message)
*
Have covered
general
principles of all
parts of our
Rube Goldberg
machine *
Conclusion
Didn’t Work
Worked
•
•
•
•
•
Ball always traveled down
incline and hit yo-yo
Yo-yo consistently landed in
bucket
Golf ball always rolled down
incline and knocked down books
Marble rolled down book incline
and hit golf ball
Lever system consistently pulled
down incline w/ golf ball
•
•
•
•
Intricate domino design was timeconsuming and delicate
Sword could possibly fall down from
vibrations of dominoes hitting the
table
Sliding cell phone could possibly fail
to trigger K’Nex singer/domino
sequence
Basketball could fail to be pulled
down by book
Overall
Project was frustrating, time-consuming, and mentally challenging,
yet educational and rewarding to complete