Trapped 12/2/09. Doug Liedle, Stirling Heath, Kyle Winter, Kevin O Rear. Team 6. Section 9

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1 Trapped 1 Trapped 12/2/09 Doug Liedle, Stirling Heath, Kyle Winter, Kevin O Rear Team 6 Section 9

2 Trapped 2 Overview Trapped is a Rube Goldberg device that was tasked with losing energy and raising a team flag at the end of the device as well setting off the next team s device. We ran many trials of our device and once we finally got the kinks worked out we were successful in accomplishing our goal. We raised our team s flag and set off the next team s device. Our device included 6 steps where we dropped marbles, set off rattraps, mouse traps and bear traps, and finally raised our flag. We concluded that several of our design aspects had to be changed due to their lack of feasibility. This did not however slow us down as we worked our way around these problems. The biggest conclusion that we found was to keep our device simple. The simpler the device the less likely there is for something to go wrong. Introduction The objectives of this project were as follows: Solve an open-ended problem while working as a team. Demonstrate ways that engineers communicate - presentations, spreadsheets, written reports Apply principles you've learned in EF 151 and EF 105 Have fun These were the objectives of the project as listed by the instructions. We however decided that as a team we wanted to add several objectives of our own: Develop good leadership skills by taking the project and splitting it up into several parts so we can accomplish more in the same amount of time Come closer as team mates and learn how to work better with each other and future colleagues Come closer as friends and develop friendships that will last throughout college and into our professional lives Become better problem solvers by finding solutions to problems that we face in our project and implementing them in our device With these objectives in mind we set off on a designing and building experience that would challenge us as engineering students and as friends. Design Process Our design process was rather simple. We decided that in order for us to get our device to work on a consistent basis we needed to keep it simple. With this in mind we started brainstorming. We had several different designs that were thought up but most had some design issues. We also had some ideas for steps that were too complicated. One of our ideas for a step was to have a marble launch off of a ramp and hit another ball to start it rolling. This idea was scrapped due to the unreliability of the marble flying through the air. We instead opted for a more reliable step that worked on a consistent basis. One of the inspirations for our design was the cartoon show Tom and Jerry. In this show there are many attempts by a cat to catch a mouse using different machines he builds and traps.

3 Trapped 3 Once we had our design finalized we thought out a list of supplies that we would need. This was time saving step, as we did not needlessly wander around a hardware store wondering what we needed. This also helped us to save money because we did not buy anything that was unnecessary. Device Description Step 1: This step was the lever arm. This was where the marble would drop down into the green cup and trigger step two. Step 2: Here we set off a series of dominoes with the lever arm. Notice the thin metal rod sticking out of the first domino. This was for the lever arm to hit and set off the rest of the dominoes. The last domino would swing down and hit a marble for step three. Step 3: This was a series of ramps that we liked to call Rolling Thunder. The marble would roll down these and then it would fall off the last one to trigger step four. Step 4: This was the first in a series of traps on our device. This was a rat trap that would go off when the marble hit it and trigger the next series of steps. Step 5: This step included a pin being pulled out of a PVC pipe holding a marble in it that would trigger our next trap, a bear trap! When the bear trap went off it would remove a think wooden rod holding up weights. When the weights fell it would trigger step six. Step 6: This step was our flag being raised and triggering the next groups device. Go UT!!!!!! Bill of Materials Bear Trap- $8.00 Rat Trap- $2.00 Mouse Trap- $.50 Hardware- $1.00 PVC- $3.00 Marbles- $.25 Wood- $5.00 Total- $19.75 Calculations

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5 Trapped 5 Results of Testing Our testing played a crucial in the success of our device. As originally planned we had a cup of water triggering the lever arm by draining its water into the green inverted cone. We realized soon after testing it the first time that it was a big mess to contend with all of the water going everywhere. This was our first step too so we had to get it working. We got together as a team and thought about what we could use instead of water. We struck upon the idea that we could use a piece of PVC piping and have a marble sitting on a pin going through it that would fall down and contain enough mass to start the lever arm spinning. This was the only really drastic result of our testing. Some of the other results of our testing was that we moved different steps around so that they functioned better together. We also had to do a trial and error of where certain parts of the device belonged because they were dependent upon a falling marble triggering them. We had to find out where the marble fell. This was not a very big result of our testing but it still played an important part. Conclusion Trapped was a success! We were able to design a device that followed all of the guidelines given to us and it functioned exactly how we designed it to. Our project was not only a success in terms of the device working but it also helped us to accomplish the goals that we had set out for ourselves. Some of the things that we did learn during this project though was that even the best laid plans sometimes need to be scrapped in favor of on the fly thinking and problem solving. You are not going to be given days and weeks to solve some problems at your job. Some problems will need to be solved on the spot. We would not do anything differently. Even though some of our original ideas did not work out as planned we gained valuable experience that could not be gotten from a classroom. There is something to be learned even in ones failures.