Complexity Energy Transferring

By: Hunter P. (Grade: 10) and Emery H. (Grade: 10)

School: Lakewood Highschool

We are complexity energy transferring with a machine that we call “The Cuber.” It is a Rube Goldberg energy transfer machine with the goal of putting an ice cube in a glass of water. While it is not very long, it was very difficult to set up, as we required the exact line-up from car, to dominos, to other car, and ice cube.

Intro and Blooper Video:

Completion Run:

Unfortunately, as we forgot to do so, and our deadline hit fast, we had to dub over some parts to explain and do the countdown, but all in all, it worked. The basic premise of the machine was to use a small motor, to release a toy car, that ran down a track and hit some dominos, which knocked into another toy car, sliding down the ramp and knocking the ice cube into the cup. As many know, Rube Goldberg machines are very complex for a simple task, and we took heavy inspiration from his machines, unfortunately, we didn’t have enough space, materials, or time to draw out the machine, so we were not even close to the minute mark.

Some Pictures From Putting It Together:

5 thoughts on “Complexity Energy Transferring

  • this looks really cool and I love the motor on the car for I want to be an engineer

    Reply
  • Thanks for showing the missed runs, it’s encouraging to younger students who may get frustrated that their ETM doesn’t run on the first try. It looks like you had fun with this and that’s very important in many projects. My question would be, if given the time, how would you have made the results from each step more consistent?

    Reply
    • If we had time, we would most likely make the machine itself longer and measure out the exact details of where we need the cars and ice cube to end up.

      Reply

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