Puzzle 3: Gears and Belts

O and W started playing the Incredible Machine together. They selected the first puzzle in the Head-to-Head area and had a great deal of trouble getting started. They are had trouble negotiating the constraints of the Head-to-Head interface. For W the frustration is too much and he left after 5 minutes to go play another game. O ended up playing the Incredible Machine for an hour, sometimes with B, as in this section, and sometimes alone. W and O illustrate the different reactions people can have to this game, so give up quickly and some stay with it for a long time.

Here O has been playing the Incredible Machine for 14 minutes and has completed 2 puzzles with B, who came to play after W left. O has added the missing pieces to hook up a conveyor belt to a power source (the mouse cage), but it runs backwards and sends the basketball off the screen (to the right) instead into the target area (on the left). He is stuck and calls for B. He describes the goal and they identify the problem.

--O looks around the room for his partner, B, who wandered off to another game. He calls B twice. "Come here. I don't know if this is gonna work or not."
--B: What are you trying to do?
--O: Get these 3 basketballs in. What, why is it doing that?
--B says something inaudible, takes mouse from O.
--O: Put it there. ... Run action.
--B: Why's it going that way?
--O: That's OK (takes mouse back)
--B: Yeah, do, OK I found the problem. Wait, wait.
--O: I don't know.
--B: No they're already going this way. (takes mouse)

Much of their discussion involves trying to figure out how to get the ball moving the desired direction. First they tried to move the drive belt that connects the conveyor belt to the gears. Then they tried moving the gears around. This line of thinking doesn't get them closer to a solution so here they explore trying blocking the basketball so it won't go off the edge of the screen. This strategy makes some sense in the context of the other puzzles, and may even have worked if they had had something in the toolbox for the ball to bounce off of, like a wall. B and O are still exploring the puzzle, trying to figure out how things work and what the parameters are for how things can be moved and what the effects of changes are.

--O: Can you stick it on top, on top over here?? It's not going over anything, oh yeah it's hitting that ... annoying. You gotta get that outta the way.
--B: Oh this wall won't move will it? I don't know.
--O: Put it right there. (takes mouse)
--B: But it always moves that way, I can't put it there.
--O: Well?
--B: Can you move this?
--O: I don't think so. I'm gonna try this. What? I don't know.
--B: Wait let me try.
--O: Just gonna see if I can block it from going this way. I don't know. Oh! I see!
--B: Yeah try it.
--O Yech. Maybe if I stick it farther
--B: Wait what is this ball doing here (pointing to the small red ball above the mouse cage)?
--O: It scares the mouse
--B: Wait, let me try something, let me try something (whining)
--O: I don't know... (B takes mouse) Oh don't.

Blocking the ball hasn't worked so now B and O try (unsuccessfully) to flip the conveyor belt over so it will run the other way. B is starting to get frustrated with the puzzle and suggests they go on to another one. Then she gets a brainstorm and bases the solution on the working conveyor belt setup that came with the puzzle. This example has been on the screen the whole time, but she finally figures out its significance. Perhaps her frustration with not having been able to solve the problem by moving all of the pieces involved caused her to look at the screen more broadly and she noticed something about the other basketballs and conveyor belts.

--B: Can't we turn this (the conveyor belt)?
--O: No don't because it will hit the wall
--B: (runs) See? This doesn't work. Wait.
--O: Stick it over here, stick over here that thing. Oh yeah the ball will fall. ... Oh I know! flip it around flip [the conveyor belt] around.
--B: I'm trying! The only think I can do is flip this around. And I can't
--O: Well I know
--B: It won't flip.
--O: Are you sure?
--B: I'm positive. I don't know I don't get it. Try another one. How do you...
--O: Hints! Hints, hints.
--B: I got it! (annoyed) What?! What about it.
--O: I don't know.
--B: Didn't work. See? I know! Ohmigod. I totally know. I don't know for some reason that just seemed like the right thing to do.
--O: And connect it to that, see how it's connected? Oh I see, I see.
--B: What, what do you see?
--O: Stick it next to that, connect the cord, that should work.
--B: What? connect the cord to what?
--O: Next to that. No click down there.
--B: Why?
--O: Now...
--B: It's not gonna work.
--O: Well gotta get closer. No put it on the side, right next to it. No down. Yes! (he raises his arms up) Oh man that was close.

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