As a science and math pre-service teacher, I find beauty in efficiency. There is an elegance to simplicity that cannot be denied. That said, I'm deeply amused and fascinated by the opposite of efficiency: the Rube Goldberg design. Rube Goldberg machines are made to perform the most basic of tasks, such as finding rubber boots on a rainy day (see below), in the most complicated way imaginable. They usually involve complex chain reactions and frequently takes many trials to work successfully once.Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor and author. Rube’s early years
as an engineer informed his most acclaimed work. Rube did not build the machines he drew, but his cartoons have become an inspiration to aspiring engineers and scientists across the world.
The are many Rube Goldberg Machine contests that bring Rube’s comic genius to life. The following are a few YouTube videos of some winners and personal favourites:
The are many Rube Goldberg Machine contests that bring Rube’s comic genius to life. The following are a few YouTube videos of some winners and personal favourites:
taken from: http://www.rubegoldberg.com
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
This Rube Goldberg machine is stand alone incredible, but OK Go is an actual band and it was the members who had the idea to do this. To me, that makes it even more awesome!
A few fun facts I found on wikipedia:
For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Too_Shall_Pass_(song)#Second_music_video:_Rube_Goldberg_Machine
A few fun facts I found on wikipedia:
- 50-60 people from Synn Labs, California Institute of Technology and MIT helped design and construct the machine.
- They had 47 unsuccessful tries on the first day of filming (thankfully most were at the ~30 second mark) so they had to go into a second day.
- It took a team of 30 people approximately an hour to reset the machine after a failed take.
For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Too_Shall_Pass_(song)#Second_music_video:_Rube_Goldberg_Machine
Mythbusters' Holiday Themed Rube Goldberg
Could there be a better combination: Mythbusters, Mentos, cola, and a Rube Goldberg machine? I love the frustration at the beginning of this video because it's truly a maddening process to make one of these. I tried with the science club where I did my internship and I'm sorry to say we did not get far; our ideas were too grand and there was too little time.
2D Photography Rube Goldberg Machine
Maybe it's just me, but I struggle taking a picture with a camera without the added complication of Rube Goldberg. This video blows my mind away! I'm also a partial to anything that features a Super Mario cameo.
Purdue's 300 Step Balloon Inflating Rube Goldberg Machine
This Rube Goldberg machine built by a team at Purdue University has 300 steps and was crowned by the Guinness World Book of Records to be the largest one ever built. It took over 5000 hours to build this machine, whose task was to inflate a balloon.
The first video is a 'behind the scene' guide to the creation and building process and the second video shows the successful trial.
The first video is a 'behind the scene' guide to the creation and building process and the second video shows the successful trial.