Wilhelm-O-Matic
Our project is known by those in the know as the Wilhelm-O-Matic (or the Careening Carrot Car of Chaos), Our project involved a slow wheel and axel, a 180 degree spinning hammer, a careening purple marble, and carrots. The goal is to hit an iPhone, activating an air horn or a Wilhelm scream.
PHYSICS CONTENT:
FORCE:
Force is mass x acceleration. Force is measured in Newtons, named after Isaac Newton, a brilliant physicist and zombie hunter in his spare time (Okay, so I made that last part up, but don't be surprised when you see Isaac Newton: Zombie Hunter coming to a theater near you). We used force in many, if not most, of our calculations.
WORK:
Work is force x distance, and is used to see how much force is put upon something. The unit for work is Joules, named after James Prescott Joule, who studied the science of growing amazing beards. Seriously, this guy had one monster beard. Anyways, we used work to find out how much our marbles would move anything they knocked into.
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE:
Mechanical advantage is calculated in many different ways with different simple machines, but the overarching formula is that MA = force without machine over force with machine. MA is unique in that it does not have a unit. Mechanical advantage is named after the world renowned scientist, Jacques M. Advantage. Dr. Advantage is known for his amazing accomplishments in never having existed. We calculated the mechanical advantage of one of our slopes, a pulley, and our lever in our project.
ENERGY: KINETIC, POTENTIAL
There are two main types of energy: Kinetic and Potential. Potential energy is calculated using the formula PE = mass x acceleration due to gravity x height, and is how much energy an object can have right before another force acts upon it. Kinetic energy is calculated using the formula KE = .5 x velocity x mass, and is the energy an object actually has. The only reason that kinetic and potential energy aren't the same number is that some energy goes to friction, sound, and other things in the real world. They both use Joules as their units. We often used both potential and kinetic energy in our calculations, as they are both equal to work.
ACCELERATION:
Acceleration is change in velocity over change in time, and is used to see how fast an object will speed up. Acceleration is measured in m/s squared. We found that acceleration is vital to most equations mentioned previously, and we calculated it so much that we began to groan every time we found it at the bottom of our calculations. We groaned a lot.
VELOCITY:
Velocity is speed with a direction, and is calculated using the formula v = change in distance over change in time. We actually did not use velocity very much in our Rube Goldberg machine, as most of our motion stayed in a straight direction, but it is still a useful calculation. Velocity is named after the velociraptors, who discovered the physics equation 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period.
MOMENTUM:
Momentum is mass x velocity, and is the tendency of an object to continue moving. Momentum doesn't have its own unit. In our project, we found the impulse of our wheel and axle, and impulse is equal to momentum.
FORCE:
Force is mass x acceleration. Force is measured in Newtons, named after Isaac Newton, a brilliant physicist and zombie hunter in his spare time (Okay, so I made that last part up, but don't be surprised when you see Isaac Newton: Zombie Hunter coming to a theater near you). We used force in many, if not most, of our calculations.
WORK:
Work is force x distance, and is used to see how much force is put upon something. The unit for work is Joules, named after James Prescott Joule, who studied the science of growing amazing beards. Seriously, this guy had one monster beard. Anyways, we used work to find out how much our marbles would move anything they knocked into.
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE:
Mechanical advantage is calculated in many different ways with different simple machines, but the overarching formula is that MA = force without machine over force with machine. MA is unique in that it does not have a unit. Mechanical advantage is named after the world renowned scientist, Jacques M. Advantage. Dr. Advantage is known for his amazing accomplishments in never having existed. We calculated the mechanical advantage of one of our slopes, a pulley, and our lever in our project.
ENERGY: KINETIC, POTENTIAL
There are two main types of energy: Kinetic and Potential. Potential energy is calculated using the formula PE = mass x acceleration due to gravity x height, and is how much energy an object can have right before another force acts upon it. Kinetic energy is calculated using the formula KE = .5 x velocity x mass, and is the energy an object actually has. The only reason that kinetic and potential energy aren't the same number is that some energy goes to friction, sound, and other things in the real world. They both use Joules as their units. We often used both potential and kinetic energy in our calculations, as they are both equal to work.
ACCELERATION:
Acceleration is change in velocity over change in time, and is used to see how fast an object will speed up. Acceleration is measured in m/s squared. We found that acceleration is vital to most equations mentioned previously, and we calculated it so much that we began to groan every time we found it at the bottom of our calculations. We groaned a lot.
VELOCITY:
Velocity is speed with a direction, and is calculated using the formula v = change in distance over change in time. We actually did not use velocity very much in our Rube Goldberg machine, as most of our motion stayed in a straight direction, but it is still a useful calculation. Velocity is named after the velociraptors, who discovered the physics equation 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period.
MOMENTUM:
Momentum is mass x velocity, and is the tendency of an object to continue moving. Momentum doesn't have its own unit. In our project, we found the impulse of our wheel and axle, and impulse is equal to momentum.
PROJECT PEAKS:
There were many fun things we did, and interesting skills I learned, during the course of our project. Firstly, I had never really worked with a majority of the power tools we used in the project. For example, I ended up using the most powerful, most massive mechanized saw to cut a plank of wood in half. I learned that you have to, in fact, pull a trigger on the device to get the blade spinning, but only after you have lowered the saw from its natural position. Second, I learned that sometimes you have to give up on things that aren't going to work out. Our major example of this came in the form of our finicky first wheel and axle. which was only our second step. While other groups were on their fourth and fifth steps, we were stuck working on it. Eventually, we had to let go, and though we were behind, we got our Rube Goldberg to work pretty consistently.
PROJECT PITS:
While I learned many things, there was still much to be improved on. Firstly, I managed to screw up the hinges on our dominoes. Originally, we were going to have hinged dominoes (to make them easier to set back up), but the hot glue got in the hinges, and they didn't fall over, so they had to be scrapped. Second, we should have built a sturdier foundation. Throughout the project, we feared our board would snap in half, and it almost did plenty of times. This could have been easily fixed if we had built more of a foundation in the back, to reinforce the board.
There were many fun things we did, and interesting skills I learned, during the course of our project. Firstly, I had never really worked with a majority of the power tools we used in the project. For example, I ended up using the most powerful, most massive mechanized saw to cut a plank of wood in half. I learned that you have to, in fact, pull a trigger on the device to get the blade spinning, but only after you have lowered the saw from its natural position. Second, I learned that sometimes you have to give up on things that aren't going to work out. Our major example of this came in the form of our finicky first wheel and axle. which was only our second step. While other groups were on their fourth and fifth steps, we were stuck working on it. Eventually, we had to let go, and though we were behind, we got our Rube Goldberg to work pretty consistently.
PROJECT PITS:
While I learned many things, there was still much to be improved on. Firstly, I managed to screw up the hinges on our dominoes. Originally, we were going to have hinged dominoes (to make them easier to set back up), but the hot glue got in the hinges, and they didn't fall over, so they had to be scrapped. Second, we should have built a sturdier foundation. Throughout the project, we feared our board would snap in half, and it almost did plenty of times. This could have been easily fixed if we had built more of a foundation in the back, to reinforce the board.