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The Complicated Way to Turn on a Flashlight
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."
1.2Mb .mov
:)
This ought to stress-test the machine.
Here, here, here and here
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I guess CNN is now the place to go for breaking geek news.
Heres a link just in case. Mirror
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....
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Anybody remember the Honda commercial like this?
A short video clip can be seen here.
Not anymore.
So civilians figured out what the US Military does everyday.
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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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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Check out my Music Video!
From volume 2 of the Kama Sutra, I presume.
That's almost as bad as having a Vice President's oilcompany winning US oil contracts in Iraq... Oh wait!
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.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
This is a Rube Goldberg machine. That is the point. To make something overly complex to do something simple. Here's some more info
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.
Might I add one of Rube Goldberg's first attempts?
Not Quite Rube Goldberg
In case you haven't heard of him, he's the great grandson of dances with wolves.
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.)
Tom had much more complicated techniques.
Shouldn't this whole article be modded -100000 redundant?
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
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.
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.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
i found this as i was poking at the site:n ner.mov
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/mov/2005/rube05localwi
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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