Rube Goldberg Progress: Part 1

             Sorry about the delay in an update about the Rube Goldberg machine that I have been mentioning, I have been busy but I am finally able to give an update. I will try my best to focus on explaining each step and how they work. Just so that you have a visual to follow along with, here are some pictures and a very quick moving video.

 As seen in the video, our several hours of planning and hard work have helped us to accomplish a chain reaction that somehow only takes about 8 seconds to complete. I believe that so far there should be 6 different "steps" to the machine so far, depending on the judge. As of right now the contraption is not the prettiest but it made more sense to wait until we are completely finished building to paint in order to save paint.
      While walking through the steps it may help to watch the video every so often in order to understand what is going on. I will also try to simplify talking about the motions by referring to each ball as a number in order to keep track of them. The chain reaction begins at the top of the wooden ramp in the top left corner. The reactions are initiated by placing a golf ball (Ball #1) on the top left corner on the ramp. The ramp ispositioned at an angle in order to make the ball roll down with a sufficient amount of speed. The golf ball rolls down and off the ramp while hitting another, wooden, ball (Ball #2) that is placed at the bottom of the ramp and is attached to a string which is screwed into the board. Ball #2 acts as a pendulum once knocked off the ramp by Ball #1 and swings over to a contraption that is based off of a windmill. On top of this "windmill" contraption is another, metal, ball (Ball #3) that has its weight balanced out on the windmill by the orange arm on the bottom and a third arm of the windmill attached on the right. When Ball #2 swings over it hits the bottom (orange) arm of the windmill which causes the windmill to spin slightly and release Ball #3. Ball #3, accelerated by gravity, falls straight down in the black funnel below. The funnel is then connected to a ,for lack of better wording, wooden box of random movements. Throughout this box, Ball #3 bounces back and forth repeatedly before rolling down the ramp into the next part. After going through the wooden box, Ball #3 enters a somewhat S-shaped tunnel when it ends its journey by falling out, for now. Now for the confusing part. Going back to the top, When Ball #1 falls from the starting ramp, after hitting ball #2,  it lands on another ramp that changes its direction to going left as it rolls down. At the end the second ramp, Ball #1 falls into a Styrofoam pocket-like holder that is attached to the end of a mounted cup, which technically ends its journey. The cup is mounted on a tube which allows it to spin freely, The cup/Styrofoam thing is then attached in a slight-left, vertical position by a small piece of Velcro. When Ball #1 falls into the Styrofoam, it hits with enough force to detach the cup/Styrofoam contraption from the Velcro and fall to its ending, horizontal position. As seen in the video (unfortunately was not on for the pictures yet) there is a fake bird on the left end of the cup/Styrofoam thing that has a small pin hidden in its beak. There is also another funnel with a balloon resting inside of it. Inside of the balloon there is a small, metal ball (Ball #4). So when Ball #1 falls and causes the cup/Styrofoam to fall, the bird at the end falls into the balloon which causes the hidden pin to pop the balloon. Once the balloon is popped by the falling bird, Ball #4 is released from the balloon and proceeds to fall into the funnel where it follows the black tube until it falls out, ending Ball #4's journey for now. Backtracking to the plastic cup's motion, the cup starts out at an inclined position which allows for another small, metal ball (Ball #5) to rest inside of the cup at the bottom. As the cup tips and and falls to its ending position after being hit by Ball#1, forces act on Ball #5 that cause it to shift in the cup and roll towards the left of the cup (in the cup's horizontal position). As Ball #5 reaches its leftmost position in the cup, there is a small hole cut into the cup that allows Ball #5 to fall out of the cup, which an undetermined destination,for now.So at the end of the currently built portion of our Rub Goldberg Machine, Ball #1 has ended its journey in its Styrofoam holder and Ball #2 stays attached to the string where it swings back in forth like a pendulum until it slows to a stop where it sits at its lowest point. Ball #3 and Ball #4 are still continuing their journeys and are waiting for their next step and Ball #5 has just started its journey and is waiting for its first job.