Rube Goldberg Project
The Project:
In Dave Heerschap's Physics class, we were to get in groups of three and make a Rube Goldberg project over the course of four weeks. There was a time, step, and height requirement. It had to run for 30 seconds, consists of 15 steps, and had to be under 3 feet. My partners were Luke Longfellow and Henry Isenberg...and up until the last couple of weeks of the project, we weren’t getting a lot done. It wasn’t fun because all of my energy was focused on getting the group focused to actually make progress. Even though we were behind, we did get all of the points possible for all the check-ins except for the reliability test. The project ended on a good note; exhibition went well, and we were ready to move on from the project.
Calculations:
Sketch Up:
DEFYING GRAVITY 2013: ROCKET UNIT
GROUP MEMBERS: KATE PRETS, ISABEL KRULL, AND PERRIN KILEEN (Left to Right order)
REFLECTION
I really enjoyed this project, from working in class, test launches, and especially the exhibition. At the exhibition, the launch was successful, however, the parachute did not deploy. This was because of the nose cone. Our first nose cone was made out of plastic, but it did not work very well, so we redid it. The new design was made of half a miniature soccer ball, and in some respects it had positive effects (height), but in other ways it had negative effects (direction and the parachute) Since we replaced the nose cone with half of a miniature soccer ball, the surface area was too big, so it would veer off to the side, and then it couldn’t catch enough air to lift up the nose cone, so the parachute couldn’t deploy.
If I could go back and redo the rocket, I wouldn’t change very much. I would just spend much more time perfecting the nose cone so that the parachute had a better chance of deploying. To the next year of builders, I would just say tot listen to what Dave says in preparation for the rockets, and take lots of notes, because it really does help with your design. At the beginning of this project, I put my ambition level for the rocket as an 8. But throughout the project, my ambition level went up to a 9. I didn’t really have an interest in making a rocket at the beginning, but once it started, I was really involved in making the rocket and had a lot of fun.
Day 6; Entry 1
Goal for the Day: Finish the nose cone
Completed: Finished the nose cone using a cut water bottle shaped into a cone with duct tape and calk glue. |
Day 7; Entry 2
Goal for the Day: Have a successful test launch and see what needs to be perfected
Completed: Part success in launching rocket. There was a snag on the parachute because of a paperclip so it did not deploy, and when it came down, an extension came off the rocket. |
Day 8; Entry 3
Goal for the Day: Re-glue extension and solve parachute mishap
Completed: Re-glued extension, removed paperclip so that the parachute won't snag, and we have decided to replace the nose cone because it does not work very well, so the team is going to trouble shoot with different ideas to make it work more efficiently. |
Day 9; Entry 4
Goal for the Day: Replace nose cone and attach parachute to new nose cone
Completed: Replaced the nose cone with half a miniature soccer ball. During test launches, the nose cone worked better in some aspects more than others. The nose cone causes the rocket to veer off to the right, but the height and length was improved. The problem was the surface area of the ball was too big, so our theory is that if we make the surface area smaller, it will help it fly straighter. |
Day 10; Entry 5
Goal for the Day: Fix the nose cone
Completed: Used an e-xacto knife to make the surface area smaller, and tried to test it by dropping the rocket off of high levels around the building |
Day 11; Entry 6
Goal for the Day: Beautify the rocket
Completed: Decorated the rocket with glitter glue-completed the skull, stars, and the teams' initials on the top of the rocket |
Day 12; Entry 7
Goal for the Day: Beautify the Rocket and trying new extensions!
Completed: The girls in the group glittered the rocket by writing "Defying Gravity" on the side of the rocket opposite of the skull and stars. We then tried to caulk glue plywood to the top of the soccer ball, hoping that it will help catch air. We will see if it stuck tomorrow, because we were having troubles applying it. |
Day 13, Entry 8
Goal for the Day: Fix nose cone because it veers off to the side
Completed: We used card paper to make a small cone to go on top of the soccer ball, because the plywood did not work, it popped off first thing in class. Hopefully this new cone will make the rocket fly straighter, so that when it comes back down it will catch more air and the parachute will deploy. Unfortunately, we don't have a test launch before the exhibition, so, fingers crossed! Exhibition time! |
Rocket Conclusion
The rocket Defying Gravity had an angle of 57 degrees when it flew at the exhibition, the observation table was 174 feet away from the launch pad, and the recorded hang time of the rocket was 6.42 seconds. This calculation was made when the team took the tangent of 57 degrees (1.53), multiplied by the distance of the observation table. To find the velocity average, the team took the square root of Max HT divided by one half. This final calculation was 27.41 m/s. From there we got our theoretical flight time by dividing the maximum height by Earth's,acceleration (9.8 m/s) by 0.5. To find the percent error, the actual flight time was subtracted from the theoretical flight time, divided by theoretical flight time, then multiplied by one-hundred. (-93.58%) The actual flight time and theoretical flight had a major difference for Defying Gravity because our rocket flew upward and sideways. The parachute also didn't deploy, making our free fall faster.
The rocket Defying Gravity had an angle of 57 degrees when it flew at the exhibition, the observation table was 174 feet away from the launch pad, and the recorded hang time of the rocket was 6.42 seconds. This calculation was made when the team took the tangent of 57 degrees (1.53), multiplied by the distance of the observation table. To find the velocity average, the team took the square root of Max HT divided by one half. This final calculation was 27.41 m/s. From there we got our theoretical flight time by dividing the maximum height by Earth's,acceleration (9.8 m/s) by 0.5. To find the percent error, the actual flight time was subtracted from the theoretical flight time, divided by theoretical flight time, then multiplied by one-hundred. (-93.58%) The actual flight time and theoretical flight had a major difference for Defying Gravity because our rocket flew upward and sideways. The parachute also didn't deploy, making our free fall faster.