RUBE GOLDBERG

MACHINE DESIGN PROJECT

TEAM: SAM ALMO, PHILLIP SHAHRIVAR, LILLIAN

WONG, VANIA KURNIAWATI, JOYCE LIAO

INTRODUCTION

Our group had to design a machine with the purpose of taking a picture with a Polaroid camera at a surprise birthday party. We wanted the machine to be activated by a light, so that when the lights were turned on to surprise the birthday boy/girl, the machine would start. The final step would involve some object falling down on or pushing the button on the Polaroid camera, which would take the picture.

DESIGN ALTERNATIVES

• One of our first ideas was making a mixed drink in a blender as a the final step.

• Another idea we had was to have a toy figure with a parachute attached fly up in the air and land on a designated target.

FACTORS AFFECTING FINAL DECESION

Complexity of the other ideas prevented us from obtaining the necessary items to complete them.

PROTOTYPE DESIGN

PROTOTYPE PERFORMACE AND SCORE

Our machine performed flawlessly on the first run for the class. We received a perfect score for it and we were very pleased. Unfortunately on the second run, we had blown up the balloon to big, resulting in it not popping as it should have, other then that everything performed as it should have. We received a 95/100 on our prototype and are content with it’s performance.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS• Our project contained 16 steps in total, and all of them

happened very quickly; which was good because the machine’s steps needed to go fast in order to take a picture successfully of the birthday boy/girl.

• Five out of the six times we tested the prototype, it performed perfectly.

• We could of added some more complex steps if we worked on the machine again in the future, possibly have another step to reload the camera which would eject the picture and allow it to develop.

CONCLUSION

We were successful in creating a prototype machine to complete our necessary task very quickly and efficiently. Our success rate was very high and the prototype was very fun and interesting for our group to design and create.