Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Rube Goldberg Contraption Ideas

We had a good brainstorming session today with the junk in a room. I took notes on some of the ideas we played with. In no particular order:
  1. Goal: ring the bell - single "hammer" or maybe multiple bits of junk (chopped up bolts) to ring multiple times in quick succession
  2. Zip-lines made from the various wires in the box
  3. Pendulums made from the 2 power adapters
  4. Tubes / tunnels made from the curtain rod rings and the sand paper
  5. Rotation / spin motion from winding up cable attached to a counter weight (sink stopper)
  6. Light switch can act like a clip to hold something (i.e. pendulum) in place until the switch is triggered to release
  7. Gondola made from a sand paper tube (see #4) to ride along wire to transport object until stopping at which point object is ejected from tube
  8. Unscrew / screw motion made from winding wire around nylon bolt and then pulling wire
  9. A ladder descent idea where a gondola (see #8) climbs down a ladder rung by rung by shifting the weight of the object from one side to the next
  10. A funnel made from sand paper to catch and direct flying bits of bolt (see #1) toward the bell
  11. Paper airplane / boat made from sand paper

Pinch took video of the switch-release-drop-the-pendulum idea in motion, click to view.