Rube Goldberg Essay

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Rube Goldberg, a world wide recognized cartoon artist was born in San Francisco July 4th 1883. He attended University of California, Berkeley in which he graduated with a degree in engineering. After finding success in his first job in San Francisco, he moved to NYC and began working for Hearst Publications. Mr. Goldberg first worked for the city of San Francisco but quit to pursue his passion in drawing where he made $8 a week working for The San Francisco Chronicle. His drawings weren 't published many times until he received a huge opportunity. He was asked to draw athletes during sporting events because it drew more attention to those who read the newspaper. Rube Goldberg 's career has finally launched. He now began to work for the San
Goldberg claimed that society always chose to take the hard way in achieving things which is why the machines were a “symbol of man 's capacity for exerting maximum effort to achieve minimal results” (http://www.rube-goldberg.com/). Rube Goldberg devices have been featured in several movies such as Back to the Future, Edward Scissorhands, the Goonies, and much more. If you remember the scene in the goodies where the movie begins at the Walshes home, we see Mikey 's complicated, yet intriguing way he opened the gate. It took about 8 steps for the device to accomplish its task in the following order: It all starts off with Miley pulling a rope which then raises a bucket. After the bucket is raised it triggers a bowling ball, then the ball begins to roll down on a track. The ball finds itself falling into a bucket from the track which triggers a bellow to blow air into a balloon. The balloon over inflated and pops, scaring a chicken. The chicken lays an egg that rolls onto a crank which causes it to kick a ball. The ball hits a target with activates the water hose, which makes the sprinkler move. The sprinkler moves which unwinds a spoil of string, thus, unlocking the gate at the Walshes home. This is a great example of a Goldberg experiment since all Miley needed to do was unlock the gate himself however, he uses a Rube Goldberg machine to make the task much more creative and
The simple machines we used are wheel and axle, 2 pulleys, multiple inclined plane, and a screw. The device progress’ through the following step: 1. A marble triggers a mousetrap, releasing a peg stuck on a peg board. 2. The peg detaches from the pegboard, releasing a marble. 3. The marble progresses down a marble run going through a wheel and axle. 4. The marble then drops down a small tube, encountering a screw in which it circles around. 5. The marble drops down another small tube, landing in a pulley in which the other end of the pulley goes up triggering a marble to be detached from a groove in a piece of wood. 6. The marble is triggered and rolls down a hot wheels ramp, down an incline plane with dowel rods guiding it in a zigzag motion eventually being tunneled into a wheel and axle with a detached ramp. 7. The ramp (or inclined plane) is pushed down (since it 's tied to a wheel and axle) by a marble which causes it to fall down onto another inclined plane. 8. The marble rolls down the hot wheel track guided in a zigzag motion. 9. The marble falls onto another ramp, rolls down the ramp and is slowed by a piece of tape.

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