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The Complicated Way to Turn on a Flashlight

Posted by timothy on from the complicationism dept.

jangobongo writes "A machine built by the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers employed an outer-space theme and used steps that incorporated a bouncing water balloon, a fireman action figure fleeing a fire and weights attached to a spinning bicycle wheel to win the 18th national Purdue Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The winning machine told the story of rocket being launched. As the rocket traveled into space, a meteor hit Earth and started a fire. While the mock fire was put out, the rocket turned on the flashlight to shine back down on Earth. A short video clip can be seen here. The contest was filmed by the Game Show Network to be featured on the network's show, 'Games Across America,' at some future date."

41 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. mirrors, including .mov by winkydink · · Score: 5, Informative

    1.2Mb .mov

    This ought to stress-test the machine. :)

    Here, here, here and here

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    1. Re:mirrors, including .mov by CdBee · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey (Parent's Sig

      That poor server would probably rather be either, right now.

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    2. Re:mirrors, including .mov by spoonsman · · Score: 2, Informative
      Oops, forgot to make that a link.

      http://xadar.noc.purdue.edu/traffic.php?local_grap h_id=480

  2. I read about this on CNN on Saturday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess CNN is now the place to go for breaking geek news.

  3. Movie on front page of slashdot! by random_culchie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Heres a link just in case. Mirror

  4. I have a rue goldberg where... by deft · · Score: 4, Funny

    you post a 1.2 meg video on the front of slashdot which activates 50,000 people with fast connections to right click and download, thus setting a server on fire...

    but do I get filmed? nooo....

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  5. Honda Commercial by cgoody · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anybody remember the Honda commercial like this?

    1. Re:Honda Commercial by hairykrishna · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a film by some swiss artists called "The way things go": http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html

      --
      "Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
  6. .... A short video clip can be seen here. by macaulay805 · · Score: 5, Funny

    A short video clip can be seen here.

    Not anymore.

    1. Re:.... A short video clip can be seen here. by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 4, Funny
      The sequence is as follows:
      • Video file posted on Slashdot
      • Server whimpers like a schoolgirl as it catches on fire
      • Fire burns through a string which was suspending a weight
      • Weight falls onto a see-saw which switches on a table lamp
      • Light from lamp activates a light sensor, switching on a DVD player
      • DVD plays, showing a pimply engineering student repeating the words 'Fuck you Slashdot' over and over.
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  7. Complicated Way by blatantdog · · Score: 5, Funny

    So civilians figured out what the US Military does everyday.

  8. *ducks* by cmacmanus · · Score: 5, Funny

    You haven't heard the one about how many Purdue Society of Professional Engineers does it take to turn on a flashlight? :P

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  9. I can see it now... by IBeatUpNerds · · Score: 5, Funny
    Snippet from one of their resumes:
    Part of team that won award three years running for devising the most complex and inefficient machine possible.
    Oh yeah... HR departments will jump these guys.
  10. Re:Gee, this sounds familiar... by UWC · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Didn't Sierra do this with The Incredible Machine?

    Yeah, but don't tell that apparently time-traveling Goldberg guy.

    --
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  11. Yes! by Krankheit · · Score: 2, Funny

    This will be great for me! Where can I order? I will never have to worry about people using my flashlight batteries up again, as long as I don't keep the operation manual nearby. This is similar to the solution I put in place with my laptop. Students used to come in and drain my laptop's battery when it ran Windows. Now my laptop runs Linux. When tehy try to use my laptop, they tell me my laptop crashed. I wonder if those who attempt to use this new light emitting will think it is broken or something...

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  12. you know what I love? by badmicrophone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    how many Rube Goldbergian machines we use without realizing how much so they are...yeah, that was english.

    Take for instance my friend's cell phone, it rings; like, as in ringing. You know, the sound a bell makes.

    Well, to me the funny thing is how much processing has to occur to create this ringing sound - all the decompression, digital to analog conversion - how some IC's are monitoring the juice from the battery - all to mimic a simple, age-old bell.

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    1. Re:you know what I love? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm not surprised your friend didn't get the external ringer/bell attachment; that thing hurts when it goes off in your pocket.

    2. Re:you know what I love? by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Insightful
      When you think about it, all of technological invention is kind of a Rube Goldberg machine, except the end result is not necessarily known ahead of time.

      Watch the Connections series and you'll see what I mean.

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    3. Re:you know what I love? by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 2, Insightful

      cell phone, it rings; like, as in ringing. You know, the sound a bell makes.

      Mine plays the guitar solo in Stairway to Heaven

      --
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  13. A walk down memory lane... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    It would be difficult to describe all 125 steps, but the items included billiard balls, a boxing glove, a space cowboy, a satellite, a vacuum cleaner and a spaghetti fork.

    From volume 2 of the Kama Sutra, I presume.

  14. I see by Bootle · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Purdue society of professional engineers won the Purdue contest...

    That's almost as bad as having a Vice President's oilcompany winning US oil contracts in Iraq... Oh wait!

    1. Re:I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      As a member of a team that lost to the one in question I can tell you it wasn't won because they are from Purdue and the contest was at Purdue, our machine got 2nd with one bad run and 60 steps, theirs looked better, worked perfectly twice (which is very very hard to do), had 125 steps (twice ours), we agree to defeat from the better team, but promise to be back next year to chew some boilermakers up.

  15. Re:first linked slashdotted already by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's exactly the point of the contest.

    Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist from the turn of the century, famous for drawing really fancy complex ridiculous machines to do something simple.

    When you see a cartoon where a bowling ball runs down a ramp, knocks a peg into a cup, which spins around a loop, and then pops a balloon, which makes a hamster run in a wheel, which in turn releases a latch which makes an anvil fall on Daffy Duck, that's a direct homage to Rube Goldberg.

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  16. Re:first linked slashdotted already by kidgenius · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is a Rube Goldberg machine. That is the point. To make something overly complex to do something simple. Here's some more info

  17. Re:Concept by curufinwe741 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You really have no idea what you're talking about. Rube Goldberg was the name a cartoonist who died in 1970. He was the one who began the trend of creating ridiculous and complex devices for accomplishing mundane tasks, such as a machine the size of a room built for the sole purpose of making a piece of toast.

  18. Re:Jesus Christ People by winkydink · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thank you for your feedback.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  19. Rube Goldberg, the early years by killermookie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Might I add one of Rube Goldberg's first attempts?

    Not Quite Rube Goldberg

  20. "rocket being launched" by MisterLawyer · · Score: 4, Funny
    "The winning machine told the story of rocket being launched."

    In case you haven't heard of him, he's the great grandson of dances with wolves.

  21. Flashlights! by rlk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are, if you can believe it, real flashlights that are almost as complicated. This one has a thirteen page user's guide in addition to a quick start guide and a reference card.

    (The LED Museum is a site that all nerds should bookmark. I believe it's been Slashdotted before.)

    1. Re:Flashlights! by Infinityis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It looks like they're trying to copy the Macintosh "all you need is one-button" approach. However, in this case, you only have a single "pixel" of output, so it's a much different situation.

      I don't think I'd buy something with such poorly thought out UI...

  22. I saw better on Tom and Jerry by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Tom had much more complicated techniques.

  23. Re:Concept by crisco · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I think the OP was trying to be funny or sarcastic. The Honda ad was inspired by a short film (that I can't track down at the moment) that was in turn, inspired by Rube Goldberg.

    Of course, by having to explain it, it looses teh funney.

    --

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  24. Redundant by Datamonstar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shouldn't this whole article be modded -100000 redundant?

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  25. Rubes by Monkey+Angst · · Score: 2, Funny

    No description of a good Rube Goldberg device is complete without the phrase "...which scares the chicken, who lays an egg, which rolls down a tube..."

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  26. Is the video of the full sequence... by BcNexus · · Score: 2

    ...licensed, or what? Can't we see it now?
    How dare those engineers tantalize us with the story and the photos and the frustratingly short clip!
    I would love to see a video of the contraption operating from start to end, as I'm sure many other people would.

  27. Re:Honda Ad by DrKyle · · Score: 2, Informative

    The whole ad was real, nothing was faked. People usually have a problem with the wheels rolling uphill, but they are real wheels just with top weights in them so lowering the center of gravity makes the wheels go uphill slightly.

  28. Heath Robinson by meowsqueak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Commonwealth readers may be more familiar with Heath Robinson (1872-1944) than Rube Goldberg (1883-1970).

  29. Mine is better by clambake · · Score: 3, Funny

    My rube goldberg machine involves the evolution of Gerbles until the point that they are capable of building thier own flashlights and turning them on. I hope there isn't a time limit.

  30. the complicated way is simpler... by jpellino · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been teaching science for 25 years - the complicated way to turn on a flashlight is apparently to hand someone a bulb, a battery, and a wire and ask them to make it work. It's amazing how many people (kids AND adults) can't do this or do it after many many wrong tries.

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  31. I go to Purdue.. by jajawarrior · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ..and I'm proud to say that we keep things complicated around here! -jajawarrior

  32. the ENTIRE video clip by krunk4ever · · Score: 4, Informative

    i found this as i was poking at the site:
    http://news.uns.purdue.edu/mov/2005/rube05localwin ner.mov

    it seems to be the long version of the machine. it's 1:01 in length and 3.3megs big. since it's not the opening post and probably wont be modded too high, i don't think there should be any bandwidth problems. but if there is, shoot me a email and i'll mirror it.

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