The Rube Goldberg Project-Operation Hamster Gate-

Engineering 100University of Washington

11/7/03

Team Members:Alex Georgescu Steve Lee Dan MillerAaron SalzburnAmy Tice

Outline

Introduction Analysis Top candidates & prototype design Construction Performance, failure and score Conclusion and recommendations

The Concept

Alex’s hamster was not being fed enough, so we decided to design a contraption that would facilitate his feeding process. We didn’t want him to get fat either so, he only gets food if he exercises. When his wheel starts moving it eventually opens a gate allowing him to get to his food.

Agent Hamster

Code name: Mousey Age: 4 months Place of Birth: PetCo Astrological sign: Cancer Hobby: keeping in shape

Loves long walks on the beach and discoing with the ladies! Get your groove on!

Top candidates & prototype design

Our team members brain stormed together Our original ideas were the ones we used in

the project We were going to have a robot in our plans

but it was going to take too much time to build

Run, Mousey, RUN!

The hamster starts running

His wheel is attached to a smaller wheel that starts turning

A marble falls on to a track and lands on a catapult.

KE->PE (gravitational)

The Catapult

The marble falls on to the catapult

Its weight makes the catapult’s safety device fall onto a mousetrap

The mouse trap has a thread attached to it which sets of the catapult

The marble is launched into a funnel

PE->KE

The Water Wheel

The marble falls into a funnel

It lands in a container that drops and pulls a cup down that starts pouring water

The wheel starts spinning

PE (g)->KE->PE (g)

The Battery….

As the water wheel starts spinning it makes a box knife cut a string

When the string breaks the two sensors of the digital Multimeter fall on the lemon creating a closed circuit

The tension in the circuit makes the digital screen change and that change is detected by the light sensor

KE->KE (m)->PE (g)-> closes a electrical circuit

We Love Lego!

The change on the digital screen sets of the light sensor

Because the light sensor was set off the motor gets power for 10 seconds

The motor powers the conveyor belt which pushes off a weight

Chemical E ->Electrical E-> Light E-> Electrical E-> KE (m)

Mmmm, mmm, Good!

The weight is connected to a pulley

The weight falls and tips the food container

Mousey has FOOD! KE (m)->PE (g)-> KE

(m)

Performance, failure and score

Our project wasn’t completely tested out together because of the lemon battery still the individual parts were working fine

The lemon battery didn’t work as designed The marble didn’t follow the designed path

because the pieces weren’t stable enough

Conclusion and Recommendations

Overall it worked better than expected but with a few glitches

Recommendations: – Redesign the lemon battery– Make the pieces more stable so the marble

doesn’t get stuck

The Team!

This project required a lot of team work and careful planning. We split up in groups and each smaller team worked on a

different task. We had some difficulties, but it all came together in the end.