Various Rube Goldberg Machines

Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg, or Rube Goldberg, was born on July 4, 1888.  He was an extremely famous cartoonist, sculpture, author, inventor, and engineer.  In 1948 He received a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons.  His best known cartoons were the Rube Goldberg Machines, extremely complex and often ridiculous machines that preform a simple task through indirect chain reactions.  These machines are deliberately over-engineered to preform a simple task in a drawn out, elaborate way.

This post will focus on real Rube Goldberg Machines rather than his cartoons; however, here is an example of one of his cartoons:

This is titled "The Self-Operating Napkin" and here is how it works according to Wikipedia:

The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C) which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin. After-dinner entertainment can be supplied with the simple substitution of a harmonica for the napkin.

Now perhaps the most well known RGM is titled "The Way Things Go" according to the YouTube video (and my art teachers) it was created "In 1987 (when) Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss built a enormous, precarious structure 100 feet long out of common items. Using fire, water, gravity, and chemistry they create a mind-blowing chain reaction of physical and chemical interactions and precisely crafted chaos."  This chain of events took over 30 minutes to complete.

Here is a clip from the video:

In my Space Research Class I and two partners had to build a RGM, unfortunately, I do not have any 

videos of it. I did, however, have to make another one with my friend Vi in my Time Studio class and here 

is the video of it. Our objective was to knock a 2 liter bottle of water off a stool with a minimum of 5 interactions.