Intermediate Science CREATE

Simple Machines

called Mousetrap? Have you ever heard of a Rube Goldberg machine? In this activity you

will learn about simple machines

that are used every day and

how they can be combined together to

create more complex machines and con-

traptions like the ones mentioned above.

Simple Machines 70

Simple machines are used

every day in many very different types of products. Have you ever played the game

Student Activity Page–copy and distribute as needed CREATE

Before you study about machines, think about the uses of machines on Earth today and answer these questions.

Why do people use tools and machines?

Do animals other than humans ever use tools to help them? Give an example.

To begin learning about machinery, visit the sites below and answer the questions.

Science Learning - Simple Machines http://www.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html

EdHeads – Activate Your Mind: Simple Machines http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/

What is a machine?

Explain how a simple machine works.

71 Simple Machines

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To continue to learn about simple machines, visit the following websites and answer the questions below.

Inventor’s Toolbox http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html

Simple Machines http://library.thinkquest.org/J002079F/sub3.htm

Simple Machines http://www.coe.uh.edu/archive/science/science_lessons/scienceles1/finalhome.htm

Introduction to Mechanisms http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rapidproto/mechanisms/chpt2.html

Simple Machines http://sln.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html

Wheel and Axle

Describe the function of the machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Site name: URL:

Simple Machines 72

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Pulley

Describe the function of the machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Site name: URL:

Wedge or Inclined Plane

Describe the function of the machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Site name: URL:

73 Simple Machines

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Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Screw

Describe the function of the machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Site name: URL:

Gears

Describe the function of the machine: Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Site name: URL:

Give some examples of more complex machines that utilize this simple machine:

Lever

Describe the function of the machine:

Describe the shape and structure of the machine:

Site name:

URL:

Simple Machines 74

Intermediate Science CREATE

The importance of these machines in use throughout human history cannot be overstated. Many of the most amazing man-made structures in the world were built using these simple machines. In today’s technological world, sim-ple machines are used together to create much more com-plex machines. They are also used for fun. When many sim-ple machines are put together in an overly complex way to perform a simple function, it is called a “Rube Goldberg machine.” There are contests all over the country every year where prizes are awarded for the best “over use” of machines to do a simple task. To continue your study of machines, you will create your own “Rube” machine on paper. Visit the following sites to learn about the process.

Official Rube Goldberg Web Site http://www.rubegoldberg.com/ (Click on “gallery” to see famous examples of his machines.)

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest http://www.rubemachine.com/ (Click on “history” to learn about the history of the contest.)

Rube Goldberg - The 20-Step Machine http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/rube.htmSimple Machines http://library.thinkquest.org/J002079F/sub3.htm (This site has a picture of an elevator made out of simple machines.)

75 Simple Machines

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The first thing you must do in creating your own Rube machine is to choose a basic activity that you do every day that you would like to have a machine do for you. This is the basis of invention!

What is the task to be accomplished by your machine?

Why have you chosen this task? Why do you want a machine to

do it for you?

Outline the steps that will happen from the first part of your machine to the end result. Try to incorporate five different sim-ple machines into your design. State what machine is being used in each step.

1)

2)

3)

4) If your school subscribes to BritannicaSchool, be sure to check out the related articles on the site.

5)

Simple Machines 76

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Sketch your Rube machine below. Use plenty of space so that each step is clearly labeled. Use the numbering from above to help the observer understand what is occurring.

77 Simple Machines

Intermediate Science CREATE

RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

Prepare a brief report that describes your “Rube machine” and the types of machines it uses. In your introduction, you should provide some background information about the dif-ferent types of simple machines, what a Rube Goldberg machine is, and why you chose to design the type of machine that you did. Assume that your reader has no knowledge of machines or Rube Goldberg machines.

In the main body of your paper, you should describe what your machine is, what it is used for, and how it works. Explain the function of the different machines that you included. Explain why (or why not) this machine might be useful to people. You should include a drawing of your Rube machine with your presentation.

Make sure you present your information as clearly as possi-ble so that your audience understands everything about sim-ple machines, and more importantly, about the machine you designed! Remember to talk about your ideas for your report with your teacher before you begin.

Simple Machines 78

TEACHER MATERIAL

Simple Machines

Goldberg, Rube ... byname of REUBEN LUCIUS GOLDBERG, American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology. His name became syn-onymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated.

…He also created the cartoon character Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, an inventor of contraptions that accom-plished simple ends in a roundabout manner. One of his hundreds of inven-tions was an automatic stamp licker acti-vated by a dwarf robot who overturned a can of ants onto a page of postage stamps, gumside up. They were then licked up by an anteater who had been starved for three days.

Additional Websites

Brain Pop: Simple Machines (levers and inclined planes)

http://www.brainpop.com/technology/simplemachines/

Information on the inclined plain, the lever, the pulley, and the wheel and axle.

Machines Make Life Easier

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/intro.htm

Zoom Inventors and Inventions

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexa.shtml

is the alleged inventor of the screw, the exact date of its first appear-

From the Encyclopædia Britannica

machine device, having a unique purpose, that augments or replaces human or animal effort for the accomplishment of physi-cal tasks. This broad category encom-passes such simple devices as the lever, wedge, wheel and axle, pulley, and screw (the five so-called simple machines) as well as such complex mechanical systems as the modern automobile.

ance as a useful mechanical device is obscure. Though invention of the water screw is usually ascribed to Archimedes (3rd century BC), evidence exists of a similar device used for irrigation in Egypt at an earlier date. The screw press, probably invented in Greece in the 1st or 2nd century BC, has been used since the days of the Roman Empire for pressing clothes. In the 1st century AD, wooden screws were used in wine and olive-oil presses, and cutters (taps) for cutting internal threads were in use.

lever simple machine used to amplify physical force. All early people used the lever in some form, for moving heavy stones or as digging sticks for land cultivation. The principle of the lever was used in the swape, or shaduf, a long leverpivoted near one end with a platform or water container hanging from the short arm and counterweights attached to the long arm. A man could

pulley in mechanics, a wheel that car-ries a flexible rope, cord, cable, chain, or belt on its rim.

Pulleys are used singly or in combination to transmit energy and motion.

lift several times his own weight by pulling down on the long arm. This device is said to have been used in Egypt and India for raising water and lifting soldiers over battlements as early as 1500 BC.

Pulleys with grooved rims are called sheaves. In belt drive, pulleys

are affixed to shafts at their axes, and power is transmit-ted between the

wedge in mechanics, device that tapers to a thin edge, usually made of metal or wood, and used for splitting, lifting, or tightening, as to secure a hammer head onto its handle.

... The wedge was used in prehistoric times to split logs and rocks; for rocks, wooden wedges, caused to swell by wet-ting, were employed. In terms of its mechanical function, the screw may be thought of as a wedge wrapped around a cylinder.

screw in machine construction, a usually circu-lar cylindrical member with a continu-ous helical rib, used either as a fastener or as a force and motion modifier.

Although the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas of Tarentum (5th century BC)

shafts by means of end-less (ends joined together)

belts running over the pulleys. One or more independently rotating pulleys can be used to gain mechanical advantage, especially for lifting weights. The shafts about which the pulleys turn may affix them to frames or blocks, and a combi-nation of pulleys, blocks, and rope or other flexible material is referred to as a block and tackle. Archimedes (3rd cen-tury BC) is reported to have used com-pound pulleys to pull a ship onto dry land.

wheel and axle basic machine component for amplify-ing force. In its earliest form it was probably used for raising weights or water buckets from wells.

List of illustrated descriptions of various devices, machines, and inventors.

79 Simple Machines