May 24 2011

World Record: Rube Goldberg Machine

What do these baddies have in common?

They are all disciples of Rube Goldberg.

“Reuben Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. He is best known for his cartoon depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. 

These devices are now known as Rube Goldberg machines.” (Wikipedia)

Each year since 1949 Purdue University have staged the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This year the task was to water a plant in at least 20 steps. The machine featured in the video below ran into a problem during the contest and was disqualified, but (as is the nature of such things), worked immediately afterwards.

The young designers are waiting to hear if they are accepted by the Guinness Book of Records as the creators of the World’s Most Complicated Goldberg machine.

The machine traces out the history of the world from Big Bang to Apocalypse (and then waters a plant)

At full speed it is hard to follow:

Broken down into steps:

 

One Response to “World Record: Rube Goldberg Machine”

1. elizabeth says:

   December 12, 2012 at 3:00 am

   this is not cool at all get a life.

   Reply