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About the Man
• Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author
• Went to college to become an engineer • moved from San Francisco to New York
drawing daily cartoons for the Evening Mail
• believed that there were two ways to do things: the simple way and the hard way
• Through his cartoon inventions, Goldberg discovered difficult ways to achieve easy results
Rube Goldberg, 1923, Popular Science Magazine
Ever see the game Mousetrap?
Rube Goldberg Cartoon Gallery• To see some of Rube
Goldberg’s original cartoon inventions, visit this webpage:
• Rube Goldberg Cartoon Gallery
• Videos of students’ Rube Goldberg machines can be found at 8th grade Rube project or Katie's 6th grade project
• Or here amazing Rube machine
A Picture Example:Alexis' 1998 Machine: The Magic School Bus
The goal of the 1998 Rube Goldberg contest at the Museum of Scientific Discovery, Harrisburg, was to build a machine (with at least 10 steps) to turn the page of a book.
• 1. Turn the handle on a toy cash register to open the drawer.2. The drawer pushes a golf ball off a platform, into a small blue funnel, and down a ramp.3. The falling golf ball pulls a string that releases the magic school bus (carrying a picture of Rube Goldberg) down a large blue ramp.4. Rube's bus hits a rubber ball on a platform, dropping the ball into a large red funnel.5. The ball lands on a mousetrap (on the orange box) and sets it off.6. The mousetrap pulls a nail from the yellow stick.7. The nail allows a weight to drop.8. The weight pulls a cardboard "cork" from an orange tube.9. This drops a ball into a cup. 10. The cup tilts a metal scale and raises a wire.11. The wire releases a ball down a red ramp.12. The ball falls into a pink paper basket.13. The basket pulls a string to turn the page of the book!
Simple Machines are the Key to Rube Goldberg’s complex machines…
• The Lever
• A lever is a board or bar that rests on a turning point called the fulcrum.
• An object that a lever moves is called the load.
• The closer the load is to the fulcrum, the easier it is to move.
• The claw end of a hammer that you use to pry nails loose is an example of a lever.
More Simple Machines
• Inclined Plane
• It is a flat surface that is raised on one end.
• A common inclined plane is a ramp.
• Inclined planes make it easier work to move objects either higher or lower.
Even More Simple Machines
• Wheel and Axle
• The axle is a rod that goes through the wheel.
• The wheel, the round part, spins and turns the axle and allows both to move
• It is much easier to move things with wheels and axles.
Simple Machines, continued…• Screw
• An inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder becomes a screw.
• A screw has sharp ridges and is not smooth like a nail.
• Screws can be used to lower and raise things.
• Screws can be used to hold objects together, like the screw on lid of a jar of peanut butter!
Still More Simple Machines• Wedge
• A wedge is made up of two inclined planes.
• These two flat planes meet and form a sharp edge that can be used to push things apart.
• A fork or the blade of an axe are both wedges. The edges of the blades are smooth slanted surfaces.
And the last Simple Machine…
• Pulley
• Instead of an axle, a wheel can rotate a rope or cord. In a pulley, a cord wraps around a wheel
• When you pull on one side of the cord, the wheel turns and the load will move.
• Pulleys are good for making moving heavy loads a lot easier.
Let’s Identify Simple Machines… • Want to see the simple machines that you use in
your daily life?• Click here to find a whole house full of simple
machines.
During this activity, you will be using simple machines to design and create a Rube Goldberg invention…
Your goal is to work in groups to create a complex machine that uses at least 4 separate steps to complete the task: pop a balloon.Today, you are to draw your ideas for your machine.In the next lab, we will begin construction and testing of your complex machines.
During this activity, you will be using simple machines to design and create a Rube Goldberg invention…
• Your goal is to work in groups to create a complex machine that uses at least 4 separate steps to complete the task: pop a balloon.
• Today, you are to draw your ideas for your machine in your science notebook.
• Indicate and label the steps involved as well as the simple machines used.
• In the next lab, we will begin construction and testing of your complex machines.
Sources for images and information:• Mousetrap image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/publik15/3847087508/
• Picture example: http://mousetrapcontraptions.com/cool-machines-3.html
• Simple machines info and images http://www.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/inline/simplemachines.gif
• http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/frame_loader.htm
