🧩 Pieces0
💥 Reactions0
⏱️ Time0.0s
🏁 Stage0/0
View
Reaction log
Press Drop the ball! to start the chain reaction.
What's in this machine?
🧠 The science of chain reactions
Rube Goldberg (1883 to 1970) was an engineer and cartoonist who drew silly, complicated machines that did simple jobs, like a machine that wipes your mouth with a napkin using a parrot, a rocket, and a swinging bucket! Today, engineers and students build real ones for fun and to practice problem solving.
⚡ Energy transferEach part passes energy to the next part, like a relay race.
⬇️ GravityPulls the ball down every ramp. It's the "engine" for most of the machine.
🎢 Potential → kineticA ball high up has stored (potential) energy. As it falls, it turns into motion (kinetic) energy.
🔗 Chain reactionOne event causes the next, which causes the next. Watch the dominoes!
⚖️ LeversThe seesaw is a lever. Push one end down and the other end goes up.
🌀 FrictionRubbing slows things down. That's why the ball eventually stops rolling.