After working on this project for a few weeks and through lots of trial and error, I managed to complete it!
However, there were a few challenges that I faced.
- Due to the plastic hose/tubes crossing each other at certain part and being tied to the metal frame, I had to trial and error on how tightly I could tie the tubes to the metal frame as problems like the ball bearing being stuck when it reaches the crossing if the tubes were tied to tightly against each other.
- Determining how much water to place in each of the containers as for the metal bucket, it has to be able to sink fully in the water to be able to trigger the pulley system to lift the plastic sphere upwards.
- Finding the best height of the wooden base needed for the structure with the metal frame and plastic tubes as the height determines how much force the ball bearing will produce once it drops out when exiting the plastic tubes.
- Exploring whats the best distance to tie the pulleys to the wooden stick as I found through trial and error that the distance between the pulleys greatly affects whether the pulley system will be activated when the ball bearing drops into the metal bucket.
Overall, I enjoyed myself while doing this project as it gave me a chance to think about how to link both the motion of the ball bearings to the story but at the same time, this project allowed me to think critically and learn through trial and error to see what works best in order to improve my work during the entire working process.
And thus, I present to you my final project (Image and Video on how it works) – The Little Mermaid (Goldberg Machine)!
